^ 


^  PRINCETON,  N.  J.  *^ 


Presented    by  C  C  vV^ .  C/  .X-\-\  O  \  d\  (5Tv^Vy\0-V. 


Division 
Section 


^v/ 


t/< 


,    ^-^yi.^^'if  J)  V 


c  ii .  ki , 


/      LtA^^  ,  '    1/1 


,,....  //.  /o^n. 


(nil  0  ns, 


CyUUy^//^l' 


// 


DISCOURSES, 


0ctriiial  u)i  'Mxuiml, 


EDWARD  N.  KIRK,  D.D, 


BOSTON. 
S.  K.  WHIPPLE   AND   COMPANY, 

161   Washington   Street. 

1857. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1856,  by 

S.  K.  WHIPPLE  &  CO., 

Id  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  District  of  Massachusetts. 


Stereotyped  by 

HOBART  &   ROBBINS, 

New  England  Type  and  Stereotype  Foundery, 

BOSTON. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGB 

I.  GOD'S  LOVE  TO  MAN 7 

n.  THE  PRIMITIVE  GLORY  OF  CHRIST 23 

III.  CHRIST'S  DEATH  THE  ONLY  ATONEMENT  FOR  SIN.     .   .  39 

IV.  THE  MIRACLES 55 

V.  CHRIST   A   PREACHER 73 

VI.  JESUS,  THE  GREAT  MISSIONARY 94 

Vn.  OUR  SANCTIFICATION 120 

VIII.  EFFECTUAL  PRAYER 135 

IX.  PARENTAL  SOLICITUDE 154 

X.  CHILDHOOD  PRAISING  THE  LORD 168 

XI.  FASTING 185 

XII.  PAUL'S  REVIEW  OF  HIS  LIFE 199 

XIII.  GLORY  IN   RESERVE 210 

1* 


I. 

GOD'S  LOVE  TO  MAN. 


"i!i2Ee  lobf  f)ini  fiftause  ^e  ffrat  lobtlJ  us."— 1  John  4:  19. 

To  many  it  seems  that  perfect  amiableness  and  goodness 
in  our  Creator  requires  him  to  look  with  entire  approbation 
and  indulgence  upon  them,  without  regard  to  the  princi- 
ples upon  which  they  are  acting ;  whether  holy  or  un- 
holy. And  yet  some  of  this  very  class  of  persons,  when 
brought  to  a  more  intimate  acquaintance  with  themselves, 
and  to  a  higher  conception  of  what  they  ought  to  be,  see  that 
a  holy  God  must  hate  them ;  and,  if  he  hates  them,  they 
cannot  imagine  that  he  loves  them  at  the  same  time.  Here 
are  the  tAvo  extremes  of  error  ;  one  of  which,  probably,  man- 
kind generally  regard  as  truth. 

It  is  to  one  of  these  errors  your  attention  is  now  called. 
I  will,  therefore,  assume  here  that  God  abhors  the  natural 
character  of  man,  because  it  is  selfish  and  ungodly.  As 
Paul  said  to  the  converted  Ephesians,  so  he  would  say,  under 
divine  inspiration,  to  all  good  men ,  "  Ye  were  by  nature  the 
children  of  wrath,  even  as  others."     Paul  himself,  so  faithful 


8  SERMONS. 

a  servant  of  Christ,  so  beloved  of  God,  was  once  a  persecutor, 
a  fierce  bigot,  filled  with  self-righteousness  and  hatred  of 
good  men.  If  any  of  us  is  approved  of  God,  it  is  not  because 
we  were  naturally  so  good  that  a  holy  Creator  must  approve 
of  us.  On  the  contrary,  our  hearts  and  our  lives  were 
wholly  offensive  to  him.  Leaving,  then,  that  erroneous 
extreme,  I  propose  to  take  up  the  other,  into  which  they 
fall  who  begin  to  know  their  true  character  in  the  sight  of 
God,  and  then  to  confound  his  hatred  of  their  character  with 
an  indifference  to  their  happiness. 

And,  as  there  is  so  much  want  of  a  clear  discrimination  on 
this  subject,  I  must  begin  with  proving  that 

I.  God  can  hate  and  love  the  same  person  at 
THE  same  moment. — It  is  shown  in 

1.  The  very  nature  of  benevolence.  — What  is  a  good 
man  ?  Try  him  by  a  case  of  this  kind.  He  knows  a  man 
who  is  addicted  to  intemperance ;  and  who,  in  his  paroxysms, 
abuses  his  family.  How  does  this  good  man  regard  the 
case  ?  He  abhors  the  drunkard's  character  and  conduct ; 
yet  he  loves  and  pities  the  man.  If  the  man  can  be  re- 
claimed, and  made  a  good  man,  he  will  rejoice ;  nay,  he 
will  do  whatever  he  can  consistently  do  to  bring  it  about. 
Now,  he  would  not  be  a  good  man  if  he  had  not  both  these 
classes  of  feelings  in  the  case.  And  thus  God  exhibits  him- 
self to  us  as  a  holy  God.  He  abhors  all  our  sins  ;  he  calls 
our  hearts  "deceitful,  and  desperately  wicked."  He  threat- 
ens us  with  eternal  destruction ;  and  yet,  while  we  were  still 
enemies,  he  gave  his  Son  to  die  for  us.     Look,  then,  at  the 


god's  love  to  man.  9 

2.  Scriptural  representation  of  God's  feelings  toioards 
the  children  of  men.  —  Notice  first  the  case  of  those  who 
murdered  Christ.  None  can  doubt  that  they  were  most 
hateful  to  God.  And  yet  the  dying  Son,  who  fully  repre- 
sented his  Father's  feelings,  regarded  them  as  deserving  the 
wrath  of  God  at  the  same  time  he  prayed  for  their  forgive- 
ness. And  was  that  prayer  ineffectual  ?  No ;  for,  on  the 
day  of  Pentecost,  within  less  than  a  fortnight  after  the  mur- 
derous deed  was  done,  a  servant  of  Christ  is  commissioned  to 
go  and  charge  upon  them  their  crime  ;  not  to  condemn  them, 
but  to  bring  them  to  repentance.  And  then  the  Holy  Spirit 
descends  to  bring  them  to  exercise  repentance ;  and  some  of 
them,  at  least,  are  forgiven. 

Take,  too,  the  case  of  Saul,  breathing  out  threatenings  and 
slaughter  against  the  flock  of  Christ.  Surely,  the  good  Shep- 
herd must  abhor  his  blood-thirsty  cruelty.  And  yet  he  meets 
him  in  mercy,  to  bring  him  to  a  better  mind. 

Then  look  abroad  upon  a  world  lying  in  wickedness,  some- 
times as  great  as  that  which  brought  the  deluge  of  water  on 
the  world,  or  that  of  fire  on  Sodom.  But  he  sendeth  his 
rain  upon  the  thankful  and  the  unthankful.  What  does 
every  gentle  drop  proclaim,  as  it  falls  upon  the  field  of  the 
ungodly  man?  Hear  it  tell  its  own  story  :  "I  come  to  thee, 
0,  son  of  man,  from  thy  heavenly  Father.  He  is  grieved  at 
thy  ingratitude ;  but  he  sent  me  to  fall  upon  thy  field,  and 
bless  it.  I  came,  one  of  an  innumerable  band,  to  make  thy 
grass  and  corn  grow  for  thy  nourishment.  He  loves  thee, 
while  thou  art  grieving  him.     It  was  not  wrath ;  it  was  not 


10  SERMONS. 

the  desire  to  keep  up  a  cold,  mechanical  regularity  of  seasons 
that  induced  him  to  send  me.  It  was  love ;  love  to  his 
enemy,  whom  he  would  fain  make  a  friend." 

Having,  then,  clearly  settled  it  in  our  minds  that  God  may 
love  and  hate  us  at  the  same  time,  let  us  proceed  to  notice 
that 

II.   God  does  love  all  men.— It  is  seen  in 

1.  The  very  act  of  creation.  —  "VVe  can  imagine  nothing 
but  a  generous,  disinterested  desire  of  sharing  with  other 
beings  the  happiness  of  existence,  that  induced  Him  to 
create  what  is  to  our  apprehension  an  infinite  universe  of 
happy  creatures,  possessed  of  merely  animal  sensibilities.  No 
one  can  think  of  them  for  a  moment,  and  of  the  fact  that  his 
will  alone  gave  them  existence,  without  being  deeply  im- 
pressed by  it  as  a  manifestation  of  the  pure  and  generous  dis- 
position of  their  Creator.  He  surely  is  in  no  way  depend- 
ent on  any  or  all  of  them.  Nothing  but  a  spirit  of  the  most 
disinterested  and  gentle  kindness  would,  for  instance,  have 
colonized  every  leaf  of  every  shrub  in  the  field,  and  of  every 
tree  in  the  vast  forest,  Avith  an  empire  of  living  creatures, 
all  revelling  in  existence.  Air,  water,  earth,  is  full  of  life; 
happy,  beautiful  life.  The  sum  of  their  capacities  for  enjoy- 
ment is  beyond  all  human  powers  of  calculation.  And  he 
who  endowed  his  creatures  with  so  much  ability  to  enjoy, 
surely  delights  in  their  happiness. 

All  this,  however,  is  only  a  partial  display  of  creative 
power  and  of  divine  goodness ;  for  that  reserved  its  great  exer- 
cise and  manifestation,  until  earth  had  become  a  paradise. 


god's  love  to  man.  11 

God  loves  the  plants,  and  shows  it  by  caring  and  providing 
for  their  well-being.  He  loves  the  birds,  the  beasts,  and 
the  creeping  thing.  But  none  of  them  wears  his  paternal 
image  ;  none  is  called  his  son.  The  fulness  of  divine  love 
was  reserved  to  express  itself  in  the  formation  of  a  creature 
that  should  link  all  creation  together,  and  all  creation  to  God 
himself 

What  endowments  has  he  bestowed  on  man  !  He  has 
given  him  a  material  organism,  the  crowned  head  of  all  other 
material  structures ;  an  animal  system  placed  in  the  throne  of 
the-animal  universe  ;  a  soul  like  the  angels',  like  God  !  Fel- 
low-men, love  gave  us  this  frame,  this  soul,  this  position,  this 
mysterious  sympathy  with  matter  and  mind,  with  the  animal 
and  the  angelic  race ;  linked  us  by  such  ties  at  once  to 
brutes,  seraphs,  God,  earth,  heaven,  space,  suns,  planets, 
time,  and  eternity.  All  that  lies  locked  up  within  these 
souls,  to  be  unfolded  in  an  endless  duration,  to  expand  under 
the  growing  splendors  of  divine  tuition,  of  personal  activity, 
of  divine  illuminations,  manifestations,  creations,  and  dispen- 
sations ;  amid  hierarchies,  princes  of  heaven,  celestial  con- 
ferences, mighty  enterprises,  vast  researches,  growing  joys, 
enhancing  treasures  of  thought  and  memory  and  affection  ;  for 
ever,  and  ever,  and  ever,  without  decay,  without  alloy,  without 
interruption,  without  cessation  ;  this,  brethren,  this  love  gave 
us  !  But  we  need  not  now  carry  the  enumeration  any 
further.  Every  human  being,  whatever  his  outward  lot, 
may  see  within  himself  this  pledge  of  his  Creator's  love  to 
himself  and  to  others ;  the  countless  arrangements  and  endow- 


12  SERMONS. 

ments  that  look  to  man's  expansion,  progress,  and  ultimate 
perfection,  are  so  many  demonstrations  that  "  he  first  loved 
us,"  even  before  we  were  capable  of  loving  him.  We  may 
see  that  man  as  man,  as  a  race,  is  the  object  of  a  high  degree 
of  his  Creator's  regard. 

And  then  each  member  of  the  race  may  bring  it  home  to 
his  own  heart,  and  realize  in  himself  the  evidences  that  he 
is  personally  the  object  of  that  love.  It  would  be  a  mock- 
ery, were  it  general,  and  not  special.  "  He  loves  me,"  may 
every  one  say  —  should  every  one  say.  And'  when  we  pass 
from  our  general  endowments  as  rational,  moral,  social  beings, 
to  the  particular  histories  of  our  individual  lives,  we  find 
overwhelming  evidence  that  God's  goodness  is  unwearied, 
inexhaustible,  gentle,  minute,  and  personal.  There  is  an 
eye  that  has  never  slumbered  since  we  had  a  bemg ;  and  its 
tender  regard  has  never  passed  away  from  either  of  us; 
there  is  a  hand  that  has  nurtured,  and  guided,  and  guarded 
us ;  there  is  a  heart  that  has  loved  us  with  a  divine  goodness 
and  compassion. 

It  is  further  seen  in 

2.  Forming  a  moral  government  for  man.  —  Had  he 
not  regarded  our  welfare,  he  would  not  have  placed  us 
under  the  checks  and  balances  and  controlling  power  of  gov- 
ernment. But  the  closest  study  of  our  mental  constitution 
as  individuals,  and  of  our  wants  as  social  beings,  with  an 
examination  of  God's  moral  government,  will  reveal  his  great 
regard  for  our  individual  welfare,  and  for  the  happiness  of 
our  race.     And  the  laws  under  which  he  has  placed  us  all 


god's  love  to  man.  13 

aim  at  our  personal  perfection,  and  the  highest  degree  and 
form  of  happiness  of  which  we  are  capable. 

But  the  crowning  proof  of  God's  love 

3.  Is  ill  Christ  and  redemption. —  "God  so  loved  the 
world  that  he  gave  his  only  begotten  Son,  that  whosoever 
believeth  in  him  should  not  perish,  but  have  everlasting  life. 
Herein  is  love ;  not  that  we  loved  God,  but  that  he  loved  us, 
and  sent  his  Son  to  be  the  propitiation  for  our  sins."  What 
was  it  but  a  desire  to  promote  our  welfare  that  led  to  all 
this  arrangement,  —  this  condescension,  patience,  ignominy, 
suffering,  and  death. 

Pause,  fellow-sinner,  fellow-man,  before  that  wonderful 
being  that  you  find  now  in  the  manger,  now  on  the  cross ; 
follow  his  wonderful  footsteps  ;  dwell  on  his  words ;  hear  his 
prayers ;  gaze  on  his  tears,  nay,  on  his  flowing  blood,  until 
you  fully  and  firmly  believe,  never  to  doubt  it,  or  forget  that 
God  loves  us  when  we  do  not  love  him.  Then  follow  out 
all  the  history  of  his  mission,  tracing  it  down  to  this  moment 
when  you  are  sitting  here,  feeling  the  power  of  all  those 
influences  by  which  he  is  urging  you  to  repentance,  and 
drawing  you  to  himself. 

What,  then,  should  be  the  effect  of  this  great  fact,  in  our 
experience  ? 

III.   Every  human  being  should  love  him. 

This  is  not  the  place  to  urge  his  claims  to  our  benevolence, 

because  that  claim  is  founded  on  his  capacity  for  happiness. 

Benevolence  is  wishing  well  to  another  ;  wishing  the  best ;  and 

so  wishing  as  to  make  any  personal  sacrifice  for  the  greater 

2 


14  SERMONS. 

good  of  Others.  We  ought  to  wish  well  to  the  least  insect 
that  creeps.  And  so  we  should  ascend  the  scale  of  being, 
esteeming  the  happiness  of  each  as  more  and  more  important, 
until  we  reach  the  eternal  throne.  And  the  blessedness  of  him 
who  occupies  it  should  be  the  object  of  our  supreme  desire. 

But  the  passage  we  are  considering  looks  in  other  direc- 
tions. Observing  God's  benevolent  regard  to  us,  it  declares 
that  good  men  are  led  by  that  to  love  God.  In  other  words, 
the  benevolence  of  God  claims  our  admiration,  complacency, 
and  gratitude.  I  use  these  terms  in  their  highest  and  most 
reverential  sense,  to  express  the  most  reverential  delight  in 
God.  as  he  exhibits  this  infinitely  amiable  character,  as  well 
as  the  profoundest  feeling  of  indebtedness. 

It  will  be  found,  on  reflection,  that,  however  these  senti- 
ments may  be  promoted  by  a  general  contemplation  of  God's 
benevolence  to  all  men,  it  is  in  regarding  ourselves  as  its 
objects  that  Ave  get  peculiar  impressions,  and  a  peculiar 
impulse  to  love  him. 

It  is  in  ourselves  we  discover  most  fully  the  disparity 
between  God  and  a  creature.  There  is  that  in  consciousness 
which  cannot  be  in  observation.  In  one's  self  one  discovers 
most  fully  the  ignorance,  the  feebleness  of  a  creature ;  how 
poor,  how  dependent,  how  unable  to  return  anything  to  God 
but  its  poor  love.  And  it  is  in  that  profounder  study  of  our 
littleness,  that  we  discover  this  great  fact.  God  has  created 
beings  who,  while  they  partake  of  his  own  spiritual  nature, 
and  can  see  in  themselves  in  miniature  his  spiritual  faculties 
and  susceptibilities,  at  the  same  time  are  directly  contrasted 


god's  love  to  man.  15 

with  him  in  feebleness  and  absolute  dependence.  And  when 
this  point  shall  come  to  be  fully  understood  by  men,  then 
the  great  typical  meaning  of  the  conjugal  relation  will  be 
understood,  and  the  tenderness,  as  well  as  awful  force,  of 
those  passages  which  compare  all  sin  toward  God  to  conjugal 
infidelity,  will  be  seen. 

We  are  not  companions  fit  to  entertain  a  being  of  infinite 
intellio;ence.  He  can  derive  no  benefit  from  us.  Nothing, 
then,  but  a  most  pure  and  disinterested  benevolence,  can 
induce  him  to  take  so  much  interest  in  a  poor,  ignorant, 
feeble  creature,  like  me.  My  wants  drive  me  to  him ;  but 
his  fulness  draws  him  to  me.  He  loves  to  communicate,  and 
he  has  therefore  created  me  capable  of  appreciating  my  wants 
and  his  fulness,  my  insignificance  and  his  greatness.  I  can 
know  my  dependence,  and  I  can  appreciate  his  goodness,  as 
no  other  kind  of  creature  around  me,  but  man,  can  do.  He 
wanted  to  have  a  heart  like  mine  to  receive  his  blessings  and 
appreciate  his  kindness.  He  made  me  with  vast  interests 
and  responsibilities ;  enough  to  crush  me,  if  I  go  alone  to  my 
conflicts  and  my  toils.  But  he  wants  me  to  lean  on  him ;  to 
make  his  fulness  the  correlative  of  my  poverty,  his  power  the 
complement  of  my  weakness,  his  wisdom  the  complement  of 
my  ignorance.  0,  wonderful  goodness !  And  have  I  so 
failed  to  understand  and  appreciate  it  ?  Forgive  me,  Father  ! 
Yes,  I  am  to  become  disinterested  in  my  love.  But  I  get 
the  first  lesson  by  going  apart  from  men  to  study  God's 
wondrous  love  to  me.  It  is  wonderful  to  me  that  he  loves 
other  men;   but  most  wonderful  that  he  loves  me.     And 


16  SERMONS. 

when  I  go  forth,  thus  instructed  and  impressed,  from  this 
personal  communion,  to  contemplate  his  love  to  all  my  fellow- 
men,  then  my  admiration  grows  and  expands,  and  my  heart 
is  di-awn  out  to  love  men,  as  my  Father  and  their  Father 
loves  them.  I  turn  to  the  Gospel,  and  there  I  see  divine 
goodness  taking  on  the  robes  of  humanity,  tabernacling  among 
us,  espousing  our  race,  becoming  "bone  of  our  bone,  and 
flesh  of  our  flesh."  Here  love  "puts  on  its  divinest  form." 
Once  it  appeared  in  creating  power,  calling  into  being  shining 
suns,  and  floating  worlds,  and  glorious  angels,  and  a  universe 
of  hymning  voices.  Then  it  appeared  in  the  gentleness  of  its 
paternal  care,  watching  over  all  this  happy  family  ;  clothing 
all,  feeding  all,  teaching  all,  blessing  all.  But  now  it  appears 
in  a  new  form  —  to  redeem  a  lost  race  !  Here  it  comes  forth 
with  a  condescension  that  astounds  the  hierarchies  of  heaven, 
and  stirs  the  deepest  envy  of  all  the  malignant  enemies  of 
God.  His  name  is  "  Wonderful,  Counsellor,  the  mighty  God, 
the  everlasting  Father,  the  Prince  of  Peace."  And  yet,  at 
the  same  time,  he  is  born  to  one  of  our  race,  as  a  son  !  And 
every  child  of  Adam  may  say,  he  became  incarnate  for  me. 
And  when  he  had  become  man,  then  he  still  humbled  himself. 
He  went  about  doing  good.  Love,  love  is  in  every  look, 
every  word,  every  step,  every  action.  I  hear  him  comforting 
the  afflicted,  warning  the  wicked,  calling  the  dead  to  life.  I 
see  him  stop  at  the  cry  of  a  blind  beggar ;  I  see  gathering 
around  him  the  miserable,  seeking  sympathy  and  relief,  and 
grateful  beneficiaries  praising  his  goodness.  He  has  malig- 
nant enemies  seeking  his  life.     But  it  is  not  for  himself  he 


god's  love  to  man.  17 

cares.  His  body-guard  is  made  up  of  lepers,  cripples,  blind 
men,  penitent  sinners,  broken-hearted  mothers.  •  0,  Prince 
of  Peace  !  who  can  behold  thy  wondrous  march  through  a 
world  over  which  heroes  have  strutted  in  their  pride  and 
cruelty,  and  not  be  filled  with  admiration  ! 

And  not  only  condescension  and  pity  marked  this  mani- 
festation of  the  Deity,  but  also  self-sacrifice.  Forbearance 
and  gentleness  toward  the  imperfections  and  errors  of  his 
disciples  fill  the  soul  with  wonder.  But  in  his  laboriousness, 
his  endurance  of  every  form  of  evil,  consummated  by  bearing 
our  sins  in  his  own  body  on  the  tree ;  going  like  a  sheep, 
silent  to  the  shearing,  and  like  a  lamb,  dumb  to  the  slaughter; 
there  we  see  love.  He  bore  reproach,  msult,  cruelty,  and 
mockery,  without  hatred  or  revenge,  and  then  he  took  from 
the  Father's  hand  the  cup  that  held  the  curse ;  and  he  drank 
it  for  us  ! 

We  love  him  because  he  first  loved  us.  He  went  to  the 
depth  of  the  abyss.  He  could  go  no  lower.  He  paid  the 
full  debt.  He  conquered  the  last  foe ;  he  opened  the  remotest 
prison-door.  He  made  salvation  possible  for  all.  Then  he 
arose,  because  the  work  of  love  could  now  be  completed  in 
heaven.  I  know  not  where  that  is,  relatively  to  space. 
Wherever  he  is,  it  is ;  and  there  he  is  interceding,  and  in 
his  place  he  sends  another  paraclete  or  helper. 

"  Herein  is  love ;  not  that  we  loved  God,  but  that  he  loved 

us."     And,  to  crown  the  proof  of  his  love,  he  seeks  ours  in 

return.     That  completes  the  evidence  of  his  regard  for  us, 

and  binds  us  to  love  him  in  return.     He  requires  us  both  to 

2* 


18  SERMONS. 

be  grateful  for  his  kindness,  and  to  enter  into  fellowship  and 
communion  with  him ;  and,  as  children,  to  reciprocate  God's 
love.  This  is,  in  part,  what  our  Saviour  intended  in  the 
declaration,  "Except  ye  be  converted,  and  become  as  little 
children,  ye  shall  not  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven." 
We  are  not  to  become  less  loving,  less  confiding,  as  we  grow 
older,  but  more  so.  And  as  a  growing  knowledge  of  men 
makes  complacency  and  confidence  in  them  more  difiicult,  we 
must  exercise  them  the  more  fully  on  God.  "Abba,  Father," 
is  the  lesson,  the  great  lesson,  that  lies  at  the  starting-place 
of  wisdom.  We  ought  to  love  him  as  a  savior.  He  has 
redeemed  us  by  taking  to  himself  our  nature,  and  dying  in  our 
stead.  To  him  our  souls  should  go  forth,  in  the  full  strength 
of  their  afiections.  Love  hira  as  a  pardoning  God.  It  is  he 
that  "blotteth  out  all  thine  iniquities."  The  moment  you 
repent,  lying  at  his  feet,  no  longer  desiring  to  disobey,  but 
to  obey  and  love  him,  he  will  accept  you,  and  would  have 
you  love  him  as  a  pardoning  God.  You  see  how  Christ  lived 
with  his  disciples  when  he  was  on  earth.  You  see  how  God 
dealt  with  Moses  and  Abraham.  You  see  what  tenderness 
was  in  John's  love  :  what  ardor  in  Peter's ;  what  energy  in 
Paul's.     These  are  your  models  and  your  encouragement. 

This  subject  explains  to  us  the  reasons  of  the  strange 
fact,  that  men  doubt  whether  God  loves  them.  —  At  the 
first  glance  it  would  seem  as  if  every  human  being  would 
rather  believe  without  evidence  that  God  loves  him,  than 
deny  it  against  evidence.  But  it  is  not  so ;  and  the  reason 
of  it  can  be  shown.     In  certain  aspects  it  is  very  agreeable 


god's  love  to  men.  19 

to  believe  that  God  loves  us ;  but  the  heart  catches  a  glimpse 
of  certain  consequences  that  make  it  more  horrible  to  believe 
that  God  loves  us,  than  to  believe  that  he  is  indifferent  to  us, 
or  even  that  he  cruelly  hates  us. 

It  is  the  very  essence  of  impenitence  to  be  self-complacent, 
satisfied  with  self  So  long  as  the  impenitent  heart,  therefore, 
can  confound  the  benevolence  of  God  with  his  complacency, 
it  will  believe  in  his  love  to  us,  for  that  flatters  our  pride. 
If  God  loves  me,  then  I  am  lovely,  is  its  false  reasoning. 
The  answer  is,  no ;  he  may  love  and  hate  you  at  the  same 
time,  as  you  would  an  ungrateful  child ;  but,  when  the  dis- 
tinction becomes  clear,  the  effect  is  tremendous.  God's  love 
is  then  seen  to  be  only  benevolence  toward  them,  and  to  con- 
sist with  contempt  for  their  character.  It  is  only  pity, 
which  a  proud  heart  spurns.  This  distinction  makes  their 
character  appear  in  all  its  vileness.  And  it  furnishes  no 
security  that  God  will  ever  make  them  happy ;  much  as  he 
may  desire  it.  The  same  obstacle  that  prevents  their  being 
made  holy  will  forever  prevent  their  being  made  happy.  No 
man  can  bear  the  sight  of  his  own  heart  as  refusing  to  love 
an  infinitely  amiable  being.  It  is  a  horrible  thing  to  disobey 
him  who  loves  us  so.  They  must,  therefore,  take  one  of  three 
courses :  repent  and  love  him,  or  believe  they  do  love  him, 
or  believe  he  does  not  love  them.  .To  see  him  loving  them 
strips  the  soul  of  every  excuse  and  plea  for  not  loving  him. 
Hence  come  the  efforts  to  think  of  God  as  at  a  great  dis- 
tance, as  indifferent,  even  cruel.  This  is  all  a  natural  con- 
sequence of  impenitence  ;  for  a  man  gladly  hears  and  readily 


20  SERMONS. 

believes  evil  reports  concerning  one  whom  he  is  conscious  of 
injuring.     But  this  leads  me  to  remark  again  that, 

It  is  as  wicked  and  inexcusable  to  doubt  God's  bc?iev- 
olence  to  the  impeiiitent  as  it  is  to  believe  his  compla- 
cency  to  them.  —  Satan  plays  a  sad  game  with  the  human 
heart  here ;  now  holding  it  in  the  delusion  that  God  is  not 
angry  with  it ;  then,  as  soon  as  God's  anger  is  discerned,  his 
benevolence  is  doubted.  And  thus  we  find  the  kindness  of 
God  so  confounded  in  men's  minds  with  his  complacency, 
that  while  they  believe  in  his  benevolence  it  injures  them, 
because  they  think  it  is  complacency  ;  and  when  they  begin 
to  doubt  his  complacency,  and  need  the  belief  of  his  kindness, 
then  that  is  swept  away  in  the  same  torrent  with  their  false 
security.  But  it  is  wicked,  against  all  that  God  has  done 
to  show  his  kindness,  still  to  doubt  it.  Unbelief  is  never 
excused  by  God. 

//  is  also  icicked  and  inexcusable  to  set  God's  benevo- 
lence against  his  justice  a7id  veracity. — Many  do.  God 
has  declared  he  will  punish  the  wicked  after  death,  and  with 
everlasting  punishment.  Against  this  men  set  his  goodness. 
If  tliey  would  so  believe  his  goodness  as  to  repent  and  serve 
him,  it  would  be  legitimate.  But  who  can  measure  the 
wickedness  of  remaining  impenitent  against  that  goodness, 
and  then  reasoning  from  it  to  comfort  the  soul  in  rebellion  ? 

It  is  also  wicked  a7id  inexcusable  not  to  love  God.  — 
There  is  no  point  our  great  adversary  labors  more  to  secure, 
than  to  prevent  our  seeing  God's  amiableness,  kindness,  be- 
neficence, and  favors  to  us ;  the  consequent  claims  he  has  on 


god's  love  to  men.  21 

us,  the  blessedness  of  loving  him,  the  falseness  of  any  other 
happiness ;  the  utter  wickedness,  inexcusableness,  and  desper- 
ateness,  of  refusing  to  love  him.  Sometimes  our  unbelief 
pleads  the  invisibility  and  silence  of  God.  "Why  does  he 
not  come  here  now  ?  "  But  he  is  here  now.  Sometimes  he 
is  said  to  be  "  unapproachable."  This  is  not  true.  Or,  he 
is  thought  to  be  "  indifferent  to  us ;  "  but  without  reason. 
Or,  it  is  said,  "  I  cannot  love  him.'"  This  is  equally  untrue, 
as  urged  in  excuse.  If  an  ungrateful  child  tells  you  he  can- 
not love  you,  his  father,  you  do  not  admit  his  plea.  You 
must,  then,  repent  of  not  loving  God.  Repent  of  that  conflict 
which  your  wickedness  causes  in  his  heart  between  benevo- 
lence and  holiness ;  which  finds  its  utterance  in  this  affect- 
ing appeal :   "  How  shall  I  give  thee  up  ?  " 

A  refusal  to  believe  that  God  loves  21s  is  the  wihelief 
ivhich.  destroys  the  soul.  —  "He  that  believeth  not  shall  be 
damned."  It  involves  a  vindication  of  all  former  sins;  a  love 
of  the  sinful  state  ;  and  a  purpose  to  persevere  in  it.  It  is  a 
distinct,  unvaried  refusal  to  accept  all  the  wonderful  provision 
of  divine  mercy  for  our  restoration  to  holiness ;  always  con- 
cealing its  deformity  from  the  eye  of  the  conscience,  by  some 
vain  plea  or  excuse.  Unbelief  justifies  the  soul's  impeni- 
tence, virtually  declaring,  in  unspoken  words,  that  "  the  Lord 
our  God  is  not  amiable  ;  that  he  is  a*  great  abstraction,  out  of 
the  range  of  man's  sympathy."  It  prevents  repentance  for 
sinning  against  him,  by  representing  him  as  worthy  of  hatred. 
And  to  effect  this,  it  accumulates  prejudices  against  him. 
This  is  its  language  :  "Is  not  there  a  great  deal  of  evil  in 
the  world  which  God  would  prevent  if  he  were  as  amiable  as 


22  SERMONS. 

T  am  ?  "Would  he  not  more  fully  gratify  my  wishes  if  he 
were  good?  My  lot  is  very  hard.  I  have  tried  to  repent, 
and  I  have  prayed,  and  done  all  that  I  could,  but  in  vain." 
Unbelief  keeps  the  heart  out  of  the  range  of  those  views  of 
God's  truth  and  love,  which  would  melt  it  in  penitential  sor- 
row at  a  Saviour's  feet.  Whose  heart  can  lie  unmoved  beneath 
the  beams  that  stream  so  gently,  but  so  powerfully,  from  the 
mysterious  cross,  which  holds  that  mysterious  sufferer? 

Unbelief  cherishes  opposition  to  the  divine  mercy.  For 
the  method  of  that  mercy  is,  to  overwhelm  us  with  a  sense 
of  our  wickedness ;  to  draw  us  to  God  by  a  sense  of  our  abso- 
lute dependence  and  unworthiness.  His  goodness  requires 
severe  methods  with  our  strange  malady.  But  these  an 
unbelieving  heart  hates  and  refuses.  Unbelief  prevents  our 
loving  God,  by  hiding  from  us  the  evidence  of  his  love  to  us. 
And  thus  it  fortifies  itself;  for,  the  instant  we  believe  just 
what  is  true  in  the  case,  we  must  turn  and  flee  to  his  bosom 
as  an  altar  of  mercy,  as  our  hiding-place  from  the  tempest,  as 
our  eternal  rest.  And  thus  it  prevents  God  from  forgiving 
us,  and  from  having  complacency  in  us.  Hear,  ye  children 
of  men :  God,  your  heavenly  father,  so  good,  so  amiable,  so 
abounding  in  mercy,  can  never  delight  in  you  until  you  come 
to  him  as  sinners,  depraved,  guilty,  lost,  and  helpless,  and 
begin  to  trust  him  as  the  Saviour  of  sinners.  Dread,  there- 
fore, and  abandon  that  unbelief  Avhich  now  binds  you  as  a 
chain  to  your  present  dreary  position  of  alienation  :  for  you 
are  "aliens  from  the  commonwealth  of  Israel,  and  strangers 
from  the  covenants  of  promise,  having  no  hope,  and  without 
God  in  the  world." 


II. 

THE  PRIMITIVE  GLORY   OF   CHRIST. 


"aniJ   iioto,  ©  JFatfjcrl  glorifg  tfjou  iitf  Initt)  tljirtt  oton  self,  iuitlj  tfjt 
glorg  feif)icf)    3;  f)at)   tuitfj   tfjrr   before  tlje  iaorlU  luas."  —  John  17 :  5. 

If  you  had  seen  and  heard  the  Son  of  God  oflfering  this 
prayer,  what  would  have  been  your  thoughts  and  emotions  ? 
Would  it  have  surprised  you  to  hear  words  which  had  more 
than  an  earthly  meaning  ?  The  outpouring  of  his  soul  in 
communing  with  his  heavenly  Father  must  contain  mysteries, 
if  it  correspond  with  his  origin,  his  life,  and  his  mission. 

Some  persons  have  tried  to  bring  down  the  experience  of 
Christ  to  that  of  a  mere  man.  But,  if  they  should  succeed 
in  this,  then  language  would  cease  to  be  of  any  value  ;  and 
honesty  could  not  be  one  of  his  virtues,  for  he  laid  claim  to 
an  experience  that  neither  men  nor  angels  have.  If  any  one 
believes  that  Christ,  in  using  the  expressions  before  us,  had 
no  other  consciousness  than  that  of  man,  they  must  abandon 
the  Bible.  This  utterance  is  among  the  wonders  of  redemp- 
tion. It  is  neither  that  of  man,  angel,  or  God;  but  of  God- 
man.  If  he  were  only  man,  he  could  not  say  that  he  had 
a  glory  with  the  Father  before  any  creature  had  an  exist- 


24  SERMONS. 

ence ;  nor  could  any  angel  say  it  —  not  the  loftiest  which 
Omnipotence  ever  made.  If  he  were  only  divine,  he  could 
not  utter  a  prayer  which  a  man  could  use  as  his  own  ;  and 
yet  it  Avas  undoubtedly  from  human  lips  this  prayer  pro- 
ceeded. 

The  passage  is  one  of  those  which  bring  to  our  view  the 
three  stages  of  Christ's  existence :  his  estate  of  glory,  his 
estate  of  humiliation,  and  his  estate  of  glory  resumed.  We 
consider 

I.  His  primitive  estate.  —  His  prayer  distinctly  men- 
tions a  glorious  condition  once  enjoyed ;  and  refers  it  to  a 
period  before  creation  had  taken  place,  when  no  being  but 
God  existed.  Some  say  God  was  alone  from  all  eternity ; 
and,  of  course,  in  that  sense,  solitary.  Now,  when  they 
speak  of  the  embarrassment  of  contemplating  God  in  a  plu- 
rality of  persons,  they  speak  only  of  their  own  experience ; 
and  urge  that  as  a  reason  why  the  doctrine  of  plurality  of 
persons  in  the  Godhead  should  be  discarded.  But  we  can  pre- 
sent an  embarrassment  from  our  feelings  equally  great.  If  we 
must  compare  God  with  ourselves,  then  we  cannot  separate 
from  their  view  of  his  unity  an  awful  solitude,  a  loneliness 
which  is  to  us  horrible.  If  it  is  replied.  You  must  not  com- 
pare the  Deity  with  us  in  his  unity. — Precisely  ;  that  is  our 
view.  We  judge  him  by  his  own  description,  and  not  by 
our  consciousness.  The  Bible  represents  three  beings  as 
God.  They  are  called  by  different  names,  as  distinguished 
from  each  other ;  but  all  are  the  one  God.  Christ  meets  our 
feelings  in  this  matter  when  he  utters,  in  this  wonderful 


THE   PRIMITIVE   GLORY    OF   CHRIST.  25 

prayer,  the  expression  to  his  Father,  "For  thou  lovedst  me 
before  the  foundation  of  the  world."  Glory  is  a  term  of 
wide  extent.  It  may  refer  either  to  that  which  strikes  the 
eye  of  a  spectator  as  admirable,  or  to  that  Avhich  would,  if  it 
were  seen.  Both  are  included  here.  We  are  now  trans- 
ported to  a  period  full  of  mystery  to  the  human  understand- 
ing ;  and  every  description  of  what  existed  then  must  be 
mysterious.  You  say,  you  will  not  believe  the  Trinity, 
because  it  is  mysterious.  Come,  theii,  let  us  contemplate 
God  in  his  unity,  before  creation,  before  time.  Where  are 
you  now,  with  your  feeble  understanding  ?  Does  no  mystery 
meet  you  ?  Yes ;  all  is  mysterious ;  that  is,  unlike  the 
objects  of  our  ordinary  contemplation.  We  have,  in  our 
own  intellectual  and  moral  being,  a  basis  on  which  to  raise 
the  conception  of  Deity ;  but  we  are  mistaken,  if  we  think 
it  is  very  broad  or  very  deep.  And  we  shall  never  know 
God,  if  we  make  our  preconceptions  the  standard  to  try.  his 
teachings. 

Brethren,  the  Deity  was  not  revealed  to  gratify  our  curi- 
osity, nor  to  increase  our  pride  of  intellect ;  but  to  bring  us 
into  relations  of  affection,  submission,  and  communion,  with 
him. 

Some  say  he  existed  from  all  eternity,  in  absolute  unity, 
both  of  essence,  consciousness,  and  affection.  But  the  Scrip- 
tures will  not  bear  that  out.  Jesus  Christ  lays  claim  to  a 
participation  in  that  existence,  consciousness,  and  affection, 
which  he  here  calls  glory.  And  it  is  associated,  or  social 
glory;  or  a  glory  shared  by  one  that  could  say  I,  with  one  to 
3 


26  SERMONS. 

whom  he  could  say,  Thou.  "  In  the  begmning  the  Word  was 
with  God,  and  the  Word  was  God;  "  "  the  glory  I  had  with 
thee."  This  is  the  glory  which  existed  before  any  creature 
existed  to  behold  it.  But,  when  intelligent  creatures  came 
on  the  stage,  they  began  to  study  it ;  and  they  will  forever 
increase  their  adoration  of  this  uncreated,  independent,  and 
infinite  Divine  excellence. 
But,  more  specifically  : 

1.  The  j)7'imitive  state  of  Christ  was  that  of  unity  in 
essence  loith  the  Father.  —  There  is  but  one  God.  On  this 
the  Father  insists  —  the  Son  insists.  The  person  of  the  Son 
is  as  really  in  that  essence,  as  the  person  of  the  Father.  You 
say  you  do  not  understand  it.  I  am  not  explaining  it  to  your 
understanding.  I  am  showing  you  what  Christ  has  deemed 
it  important  for  us  to  know,  with  all  the  obscurity  that  is 
inherent  in  it. 

2.  Tliat  unity  admits  of  a  distinct  personality  from 
that  of  the  Father.  —  The  person  called  the  Son,  has  all  of 
Godliead  that  the  person  called  the  Father,  has.  But  he  is 
not  the  Father. 

3.  He  had  the  sa}?ie  glory  as  the  Father.  —  Now  we 
emerge  into  a  little  clearer  region.  That  is ;  all  is  obscure, 
though  glorious,  previous  to  the  act  of  creation ;  but,  when 
that  begins,  Ave  begin  to  see,  at  least,  less  obscurely.  It  is 
often  affirmed  in  the  Scriptures  that  the  Father  is  invisible  ; 
that  he  is  made  known  only  by  the  Son.  Hence  this  person 
of  the  Godhead  is  called  the  Word,  since  a  word  brings  to  our 
apprehension  a  thought,  an  action,  a  quality  of  the  soul  that 


THE   PRIMITIVE    GLORY   OF   CHRIST.  27 

before  was  utterly  concealed  from  us.  The  creating  person 
of  the  Godhead  is  the  Son.  "  By  him  everything  was  made 
that  was  made."  We  know  not,  then,  a  glorious  attribute  in 
the  Godhead  that  is  not  manifested  in  creating  and  governinor 
the  universe.  The  Son  appears  the  Creator,  bringing  out  his 
own  perfections,  and  those  of  the  Father,  in  creation.  Then 
comes  redemption ;  and  then,  under  redemption,  comes  the 
election  of  the  Jewish  race ;  and  then  the  higher  election  of 
the  true  church  of  that  and  every  period. 

Here  is,  then,  glory  which  the  Son  of  God  had  before  the 
world  was ;  and  we  now  are  called  to  see  him  lay  it  aside. 

II.  The  humiliated  state  is  now  before  us. — You 
will  recall,  that  Jesus,  the  Son  of  Mary,  was  now  engaged  in 
prayer  to  the  being  whom  he  calls  Father.  You  will  recol- 
lect that  he  addresses  him  in  a  way  that  we  know  would  be 
blasphemy  in  us.  How,  for  instance,  could  any  of  us  ask 
the  Father  to  glorify  us  with  a  glory  which  we  had  with  him 
before  the  world  was  ?  He  speaks  of  a  glory  not  now  pos- 
sessed. 

1.  What,  the?!,  urns  his  humiliated  state?  —  It  was 
the  presentation  to  the  world  of  the  infinite  majesty  of  his 
Godhead  veiled  in  a  human  person ;  and  of  that  perfect  and 
glorious  manhood  in  the  lowest  possible  form  compatible  with 
holiness.  "  The  Word  was  made  flesh."  The  infinite  entered 
the  finite ;  the  invisible  took  the  visible  form  of  man.  In 
so  doing,  he  assumed  a  position  inferior  to  both  the  Father 
and  the  angels.  So  we  are  told  that  he  who  "  thought  it  not 
robbery  to  be  equal  with  God"  (the  Father)  "was  made  in  the 


28  SERMONS. 

likeness  of  man."  The  first  consequence  was,  that,  although 
he  came  to  his  own ;  the  very  people  who  had  known  him  as 
their  Creator,  by  the  writings  of  Moses,  —  the  very  people 
whom  he  had  chosen,  nurtured,  instructed,  redeemed,  and 
blessed  above  all  people, — when  he  came,  they  would  not 
recognize  his  Godhead.  The  glory  he  had  with  the  Father, 
before  the  world  was.  they  denied  to  him.  Here  was  the 
Jehovah  who  appeared  to  Abraham,  and  made  promise  of  all 
the  glory  Israel  should  possess ;  here  was  the  Jehovah  who 
appeared  to  Moses  in  the  burning  bush,  in  Egypt,  at  the  Red 
Sea,  in  the  wilderness  ;  but  they  knew  him  not.  They  said, 
"  It  is  the  carpenter's  son ; "  and,  "  he  blasphemeth,"  because 
he  saith  he  is  the  Son  of  God.  The  glory  he  had  before  cre- 
ation, and  the  glory  of  all  the  history  of  creation,  providence, 
and  redemption,  was  hidden  to  unbelieving  eyes.  Man  says, 
in  unbelief,  if  the  eternal  Son  of  God  stoops  to  save  us  by 
appearing  in  our  very  nature,  we  will  despise  him  :  we  have 
a  philosophy  that  will  affirm  the  intrinsic  impossibility  of  the 
thing.  And,  if  we  give  him  credit  for  great  excellence  as  a 
man,  it  will  be  by  a  tacit  compromise  that  he  is  a  liar ;  not 
really  meaning  what  he  affirmed  about  his  existence  before 
his  birth.  Or,  if  some  of  us  cannot  go  so  fxr  as  that,  we  will 
allow  him  to  be  a  kind  of  angel  incarnate.  Thus  Judaism, 
Mohammedism,  Arianism,  Socinianism,  Unitarianism,  and 
Rationalism,  are  all  so  many  organized  systems  of  contempt 
toward  Christ ;  the  most  severe  contempt  being  constructively 
found  in  extolling  him  as  a  Saviour,  while  his  high  and  glo- 
rious pretensions  are  denied ;  thus,  both  making  him  only  a 


THE   PRIMITIVE    GLORY    OF   CHRIST.  29 

creature,  and  the  most  blasphemous  of  impostors.  There  is 
no  middle  ground  on  this  subject.  Nothing  ever  could  be 
more  preposterous  than  the  attempt  to  shade  off  the  distinc- 
tion between  acknowledging  and  denying  Christ's  Godhead. 
But  to  this  he  knowingly  submitted;  and  thus  abased  himself 
as  God,  below  the  Father  and  the  angels.  As  man,  too,  he 
took  a  low  place.  It  was  man  in  his  moral  perfection,  he 
took  for  his  inferior  nature  ;  but  it  was  man  in  an  exterior 
debased  in  the  eye  of  unbelief  He  was  bom  as  a  sinner, 
though  not  a  sinner.  His  mother  was  a  sinner,  with  us  all. 
She  was  poor  and  obscure ;  her  royal  lineage  was  a  thine 
forgotten  ;  the  blood  of  kings  was  in  her  veins,  but  she  was 
an  obscure  village-maiden.  Her  nation  was  then  at  its  lowest 
ebb ;  and  the  time  had  come  when  there  was  no  worldly  honor 
in  being  a  Jew.  He  was  born  in  a  stable,  or  cave,  because 
the  inn  was  full  of  guests  esteemed  superior  to  his  parents. 
His  infancy  was  obscure  as  the  obscurest  of  his  followers  ever 
lead.  He  entered  upon  his  manhood,  to  be  subjected  to  tempt- 
ation :  to  live  apart  from  all  high  alliances ;  to  be  too  poor  to 
buy  the  lodging  of  a  night ;  to  be  the  servant  of  everybody ; 
to  have  his  almighty  skill  commanded  by  beggars,  cripples, 
lepers,  and  lunatics.  He  went  forth  a  teacher,  to  have  his 
instructions  despised  and  rejected.  "  This  is  the  stone  the 
builders  rejected."  His  death  was  brought  on  by  betrayal, 
perjury,  mob-power,  tyranny ;  with  the  highest  display  of  in- 
gratitude, contempt,  hatred,  oppression,  and  cruelty.  He,  on 
whom  death  had  no  claim,  tasted  death,  and  lay  in  the  grave. 
As  God-man  he  was  thus  abased  below  himself,  below  man, 
3* 


30  SERMONS. 

below  the  worst  of  men  ;  for  they  gave  the  gallows  to  him,  in 
preference  to  a  seditious  murderer ;  and  judged  him  fit  to 
occupy  the  place  of  eminence  between  two  men  pronounced 
unfit  to  live  on  God's  earth,  and  in  human  society.  He  was 
"  set  at  naught."     He  was  "  a  root  out  of  a  dry  ground." 

All  this  was  an  expression  of  the  position  in  which  sin 
had  placed  man ;  which  is  the  answer  to  our  next  inquiry : 

2.  What  ims  the  object  of  this  humiliated  state  ?  —  As 
a  representative  of  two  parties,  God  and  man,  or  of  law  and 
transgiression,  he  must  enter  into  the  estate  of  both.  To  be 
surety  for  man,  he  must  be  man,  and  man  under  a  broken 
law.  He  must  fulfil  its  righteousness  ;  for,  unless  he  were 
Jesus  Christ  the  righteous,  he  could  not  be  accepted  of  the 
Father.  That  righteousness  must  be  a  righteousness  of 
obedience.  He  must  pay  our  debts,  bear  our  penalties, 
satisfy  for  our  offences,  and  have  a  claim  as  mediator  on 
the  good  we  need. 

As  a  Power  entering  our  humanity  in  its  fallen  condition, 
he  must  meet  us  where  we  are,  to  assure  us  of  his  sympathy, 
and  win  our  hearts.  God  must  stoop  to  reach  us.  If  a  king 
would  redeem  his  subjects,  and  not  sacrifice  the  majesty  of 
the  law  they  have  violated,  he  must  abase  himself  If  the 
Son  of  the  Highest  would  redeem  us  by  moral  power,  he  must 
be  a  model  of  all  he  would  have  us  be ;  showing  in  his  own 
life  unlimited  submission  ;  unlimited  confidence  ;  unlimited 
absorption  of  zeal,  or  consecration  to  another's  glory ;  unlim- 
ited patience  in  bearing  injuries  and  trials  in  our  mortal 
state ;  these  he  must  show  us  in  the  details  of  a  human  life. 


THE   PRIMITIVE    GLORY   OF    CHRIST.  31 

He  must  honor  the  loA?est  condition  of  humanity  ;  he  must 
pour  contempt  on  the  highest  station,  in  comparison  with  per- 
sonal excellence  and  usefulness  in  the  lowest. 

All  this  required  him  to  be  man  —  man  worthy  of  the 
highest  station,  but,  in  fact,  abased  to  the  lowest. 

3.  What  was,  then,  the  motive  of  the  So7i  of  God  in 
entering  upon  this  estate  of  hmnillation?  —  It  was  love, 
divine  love,  as  God;  human  love  as  man,  as  soon  as  his 
human  faculties  comprehended  for  what  end  they  were 
created.  He  "  loved  me,  and  gave  himself  for  me,"  is  the 
wondering  language  of  every  redeemed  man.  The  prospect 
of  our  misery  and  degradation  moved  his  compassion.  The 
prospect  of  our  elevation  and  salvation  stirred  his  soul  to 
intense  and  unquenchable  desires  to  procure  it  for  us. 

We  are  now  prepared  to  consider  : 

ni.  The  Lord's  desire  to  resume  his  original 
GLORY.  —  And  here  we  would  first  obtain  a  clear  idea 

1.  How  that  glorij  could  be  regained.  —  It  has  been 
stated  that  the  glory  of  the  Godhead  had  been  veiled  in  the 
incarnation.  Now,  there  were  wanting  two  things  to  com- 
plete this  glorious  work  of  redemption :  That  he  who  had 
thus  humiliated  himself  for  a  time  should,  by  the  Father's 
consent,  resume  that  original  glory,  that  it  might  be  known 
henceforth  in  earth,  heaven,  and  hell,  that  he  who  thus  hum- 
bled himself  is  true  and  very  God.  And  then  it  must  also 
be  permitted  to  this  human  nature  of  Christ  to  share  that 
glory,  so  far  as  is  compatible  with  a  human  nature.  And  it 
was  all,  not  natural,  but  supernatural.    He  must  be  sustained 


32  SERMONS. 

through  the  tremendous  trials  which  lay  before  him ;  enabled 
to  gain  the  most  resplendent  victory  tlie  universe  ever  saw, 
over  Satan,  sin,  earth,  death,  and  hell.  He  must  triumph 
over  death  in  dying,  and  over  the  grave  in  coming  under  its 
bondage.  He  must  rise  from  the  dead ;  the  leader  of  a  rising 
race,  ascend  to  the  palace  of  God,  and  sit  as  God-man  at  the 
head  of  the  universe.  This  is  the  glory  he  asked  to  have 
bestowed  upon  him. 

2.  Why  did  he  desire  it?  —  That  the  universe  might 
see  divine  love  triumphant  over  satanic  malignity,  and  wear- 
ing the  crown  of  its  victory.  Having  discharged  all  he 
had  undertaken  as  our  Mediator,  it  was  most  proper  that 
he  should  now  be  publicly  acquitted  of  any  further  demands 
of  humiliation  or  sacrifice.  Having  merited  the  ci'OAvn  and 
sceptre  as  the  King  of  Israel,  he  should  now  receive  it.  He 
longed,  too,  that  the  joy  of  his  disciples  might  be  complete. 
There  were  those,  from  the  beginning,  who  had  made  com- 
mon cause  with  him.  There  should  be  such  to  the  end  of 
time ;  and  they  are  dear  to  him  as  his  dearest  friends.  And 
for  their  sakes,  who  have  loved  him  in  his  obscurity,  like  an 
exiled  prince,  he  would  be  restored  to  his  throne,  that  he 
might  honor  and  reward  their  attachment  to  him,  by  revealing 
to  them  and  to  those  who  despised  their  piety  the  real  char- 
acter of  him  they  have  been  thus  loving  and  aiding,  simply 
for  what  he  is  in  himself,  and  not  for  the  sake  of  any  exter- 
nal badges  of  honor.  Nay ;  the  whole  intelligent  universe  is 
represented  in  the  Scripture  as  held  in  some  kind  of  sus- 
pense, until    Christ  should   take   the   throne  as   mediator. 


THE   PRIMITIVE   GLORY    OF   CHRIST.  33 

Some  have  supposed  that  even  the  elect  angels  were  not  con- 
firmed till  that  period.  We  are  told  expressly  that  the  condi- 
tion of  all  the  redeemed  who  preceded  the  resurrection  of 
Christ,  was  imperfect,  and  waiting  for  the  sealing  of  his 
return. 

There  remains,  then,  but  one  other  point  to  be  considered. 

3.  W/ii/  did  our  Lord  need  to  jiray  for  this  ?  —  The 
inquiry  involves  several  of  the  dijEficulties  men  find  in  under- 
standing the  Scriptures.  One  is,  the  very  nature  of  prayer 
itself,  and  particularly  prayer  to  God  for  a  good  which  he 
has  already  rendered  certain.  It  would  suffice  here  to  say, 
that  that  objection  lies  against  all  prayer.  When  Daniel 
found  by  books  that  the  time  for  restoring  the  captives  to 
their  country  had  come,  he  gave  himself  to  a  course  of  abste- 
mious living,  and  to  meditation  and  prayer  for  this  very 
event.  We  may  be  sure  of  this,—  not  that  Daniel  had  not 
sufficient  sagacity  to  appreciate  our  embarrassment,  but  that 
he  had  too  much  wisdom  and  holiness  to  give  any  weight  to 
it.  When  God  had  promised  great  blessings  to  Israel,  then 
he  says,  "  I  will  yet  for  this  be  inquired  of,  by  the  house 
of  Israel,  to  do  it  for  them."—  Ez.  36  ;  37.  The  thing  to  be 
done  was  in  itself  most  proper,  desirable,  nay,  sure ;  and  yet 
must  be  sought  for  in  prayer.  That  is  the  wisdom  of  heaven, 
though  it  may  not  be  according  to  the  wisdom  of  earth. 

There  remains  another  difficulty.  How  could  prayer  be 
offered  by  the  Son  of  God  to  his  Father  ?  But  this  is  only  a 
part  of  the  mysterious  arrangement  by  which  we  are  to  be 
saved.    The  Father  sends  and  employs,  sustains  and  rewards, 


84  SERMONS. 

tlie  Son.  All  of  this  phraseology  includes  facts  of  which  we 
can  comprehend  but  a  portion  of  the  meaning  :  but  that  por- 
tion is  of  immeasurable  consequence  to  us.  We  are  taught 
that  the  coeternal  Son  is  sent  of  the  Father ;  that  in  the 
"whole  work  of  redemption  he  occupies  a  subordinate  place. 
As  the  great  High  Priest  of  the  church,  he  is  represented 
as  making  continual  intercession  for  us.  And  this  prayer 
was  but  a  part  and  expression  of  his  subordination. 

It  is,  then,  an  immeasuixihle  evil  to  deny  the  divine 
glory  of  Christ.  —  You  cannot  assign  him  any  middle  place. 
He  utterly  refuses  it  at  your  hands.  Your  compliments 
about  his  excellence,  and  his  being  the  greatest  and  the  best 
man,  and  a  sort  of  divine  man,  are  :  first  robbing  a  king  of 
his  crown  ;  and  then  presenting  one  or  two  of  its  jewels  as 
a  token  of  your  reverence  and  loyalty.  "  Before  Abraham 
was,  I  am,"  he  says ;  and  you  make  him  a  liar  and  a  blas- 
phemer, and  men  so  understand  you,  if  you  deny  it.  Obscure 
his  glory,  and  you  know  nothing  of  the  glory  of  God.  How 
do  you  know  the  Father  ?  By  his  works.  But  the  Son 
made  everything  that  was  made.  If  you  find  infinite  power 
and  wisdom  in  creation  and  providence,  if  you  find  God  in 
the  moral  government  of  the  world,  it  is  the  Son  you  meet 
there.  "  No  man  knoweth  the  Father,  but  the  Son,  and  he 
to  whom  the  Son  shall  reveal  him."  God  shines  through  his 
works,  his  words,  and  the  personal  manifestation  in  the  Son, 
who  "  was  in  the  bosom  of  the  Father,  and  the  express  image 
of  his  person."  Deny  God  in  his  works,  and  you  have  no 
God.     Deny  him  in  his  word,  and  you  have  only  the  pagan 


THE    PRIMITIVE    GLORY    OF   CHRIST.  35 

idea  of  him.  Deny  him  as  manifested  in  the  Son,  and,  what- 
ever else  you  are,  you  are  not  a  ■v\-orshipper  of  the  God  of  the 
Bible.  You -would  know  the  wisdom  of  God.  But  as  it  is 
an  essential,  eternal  property  of  the  divine  nature,  we  can- 
not comprehend  it.  We  see  it  in  its  operations  and  produc- 
tions ;  none  of  them  more  glorious  than  redemption,  the  sal- 
vation of  the  church.  So  Paul  describes  it :  "To  make  all 
men  see  what  is  the  fellowship  of  the  mystery,  which  from  the 
beginning  of  the  world  hath  been  hid  in  God,  Avho  created  all 
things  by  Jesus  Christ,  to  the  intent  that  now  unto  the  prin- 
cipalities and  powers  in  heavenly  places  might  be  known  by 
the  church  the  manifold  wisdom  of  God."  "  In  Christ  are 
hid  all  the  treasures  of  wisdom  and  knowledge."  "  Christ, 
the  power  of  God,  and  the  wisdom  of  God."  Men  who  deny 
the  Deity  of  Christ  speak  much  of  the  love  of  God.  But 
God  furnishes  the  highest  proof  of  his  love,  not  in  the  man 
Christ  Jesus  coming  to  teach ;  but  in  his  giving  his  Son  to 
become  a  man,  and  to  die  for  the  sins  of  men.  Herein  is 
love ;  and  it  is  before  this  love  of  the  Father  in  giving  his 
Son  to  the  lowliness  of  his  human  estate,  to  agony  and  death ; 
this  love  of  the  Son  in  leaving  the  glory  he  had  with  the 
Father,  that  the  heart  yields.  There  is  no  point  on  which 
the  great  enemy  of  souls  is  more  earnest  than  on  this.  The 
wisest  pagan  philosophers  were  unable  to  shun  the  rocks  of 
a  debasing  enslavement  to  the  world,  so  long  as  they 
remained  ignorant  of  God,  as  revealed  in  the  person  of  the 
Son  ;  for  that  was  as  much  the  revelation  to  the  Jewish,  as  it 
is  to  the  Christian  church.     Abraham,  Christ  says,  rejoiced 


36  SERMONS. 

to  see  his  day.  Our  personal  sanctification  depends  on  our 
seeing  the  glory  of  Christ.  "Beholding  as  in  a  glass  the 
glory  of  God,  we  are  changed  into  the  same  image."  But, 
if  he  were  only  a  man,  then  he  merely  taught  us  ;  he  did  not 
love  us  on  the  throne  of  heaven,  and  come  to  redeem  us.  Our 
fitness  for  heaven  depends  upon  our  seeing  his  glory  by  faith 
here.  "He  that  believeth  in  me  hath  everlasting  life."  Believ- 
eth  what?  That  "  I  came  down  from  the  Father,"  willingly 
resigning  the  glory  I  had  with  the  Father  before  the  world 
was  ;  that  I  bare  his  sins  in  my  body ;  thatl  sit  on  the  right 
hand  of  majesty,  as  king,  as  intercessor.  This  belief  is  not 
the  dead,  cold  morality  of  which  the  world  boasts ;  it  is  the 
love  that  gives  life  to  all  other  moral  excellence.  It  is  for 
these  persons  thus  Christ  supplicates  in  a  subsequent  part  of 
this  prayer  :  "  Father,  I  will  that  they  also  whom  thou  hast 
given  me  be  with  me  where  I  am,  that  they  may  behold  my 
glory  which  thou  hast  given  me."  That  prayer  will  be 
answered  as  death  comes  with  his  kind  hand,  and  lifts  the 
veil  that  hides  eternity  and  Jesus.  Now,  we  are  to  walk  by 
faith  ;  then,  by  sight ;  faith  in  the  mysterious  Trinity ;  faith 
in  the  divine  and  human  natures  of  Jesus  ;  faith  in  his  prim- 
itive glory,  in  his  voluntary  abasement,  in  his  resumption  of 
that  glory  ;  faith  in  our  own  interest  in  that  glory.  This  is 
the  life  of  the  church.  It  was  Paul's  life.  When  he  talked 
of  heaven,  he  did  not  speak  of  meeting  either  his  friends  there, 
or  God  the  Father.  Heaven  to  him  was  to  depart  and  be  with 
Christ.  What  was  Paul,  the  aged ;  Paul,  the  great  master- 
builder  of  the  Lord's  church ;   Paul,  whom  Christ  commis- 


THE   PRIMITIVE   GLORY   OF   CHRIST.  37 

sioned  to  face  the  potentates  of  the  earth  as  his  representa- 
tive?—  was  he  an  idolator?  No;  seeing  Christ  is  seeing  the 
Father.    "He  that  hath  seen  me  hath  seen  the  Father  also." 

'No  man  can  tell  -what  New  England  has  suffered  by  the 
bold,  open  denial  of  Christ's  participation  in  the  Godhead ; 
and  that  many  who  have  done  it  should  now  be  retracing 
their  steps  is  a  sign  of  great  promise.  0  !  it  is  not  a  ques- 
tion of  party  strife,  of  mere  theological  hair-splitting.  It  is 
the  question  whether  Christ  is  an  impostor ;  whether  the 
church  is  on  a  rock,  or  on  sand  ;  whether  I  am  to  believe  in 
Christ  and  love  Christ  less  than  God,  or  as  God  ;  whether  my 
Saviour,  to  whom,  with  the  dying  Stephen,  I  am  to  commit 
my  departing  spirit,  can  hear  me  in  that  hour ;  or,  whether 
I  and  my  neighbor  who  calls  on  the  Virgin  Mary  in  that 
hour  are  alike  idolaters,  going  before  God's  judgment-seat 
in  the  very  act  of  insulting  his  majesty,  and  breaking  his 
commandment. 

We  are  to  feel  a  deep  solicitude  for  those  who  place 
the  icorld  before  Christ  hi  their  affections.  —  They  are 
blind.  Here  is  true  glory,  and  they  see  it  not.  They  chase 
shadows  ;  trust  in  the  arm  of  flesh  and  uncertain  riches.  They 
seek  the  honor  that  cometh  from  man,  but  know  not  the  glory 
of  believing  in  Christ,  suffering  for  him,  reigning  with  him. 

They  despise  their  only  Saviour. 

The  glory  of  Christ  should  be  the  theme  of  our  daily 

meditations.  —  His  primitive  glory  is  a  powerful  theme  of 

thought.     It  fixes  the  attention,  fills  the  soul  with  awe,  and 

prepares    to  appreciate   his  condescension.      Creation    and 

4 


38  SERMONS. 

providence  show  that  glory ;  for  he  it  was  who  laid  the  found 
ations  of  the  earth.  But  his  incarnation,  his  earthly  life,  and 
his  death,  are  the  most  important  themes  of  human  thought. 
Not  a  day  should  pass  without  their  occupying  our  minds. 
While  his  present  and  future  glory  will  perfect  our  charac- 
ters just  so  far  as  we  cordially  believe  and  devoutly  contem- 
plate them. 


III. 

THE  ATONEMENT  PERFECTLY  MADE  BY  CHRIST'S 
DEATH. 


"33a    onf   offering  fjc  fjatf)    pcrfrcttU   fottfter   tfjfin    tfjat  art 
eanctif  (£»."— Heb.  10:  14. 

A  TREATISE  was  written  at  the  beginning  of  the  twelfth 
century  by  the  renowned  Anselm,  on  the  question,  "  Where- 
fore has  God  become  Man  ?  "  He  opens  it  with  this  remark : 
"  Whatever  man  can  say  or  know  on  this  subject,  there  will 
yet  remain  profounder  reasons  for  it  than  those  he  may  have 
discovered."  So  can  we  say  of  the  Atonement,  "we  know 
in  part."  The  divmes  of  New  England  have  accomplished  a 
great  work  by  discovering  in  it  a  principle  of  moral  govern- 
ment, and  showing  how  God  could  consistently  make  a  sacri- 
fice to  his  own  justice.  But  it  is  hurtful  to  leave  the  subject 
there,  as  if  it  were  fully  comprehended  by  any  act  of  the 
speculative  understanding. 

The  priesthood  of  Christ  is  not  yet  fully  understood  on 
earth;  nor  is  the  power  of  his  sacrifice  at  this  day  com- 
pletely felt,  even  by  believers.  May  light  shine  upon  our 
mmds,  and  beams  of  vital  heat  from  the  cross  fall  upon  our 
hearts,  while  we  are  gazing  upon  it  here ! 


40  SERMONS. 

I  propose  to  inquire  what  the  Atonement  is,  and  -what  are 
its  effects ;  and  from  this  to  show  that  it  was  made  bj  one 
offering. 

I.  The  Nature  of  the  Atonement.  —  It  is  here  de- 
scribed as  an  offering,  and  a  single  offering. 

1.  The  Atonement  is  an  offering  up  of  the  lady  and 
sonl  of  Jesus  as  an  expiation.  —  Expiatory  offerings 
belong  to  all  the  religions  that  preceded  Christianity. 
But  in  only  one  of  them  have  we  evidence  of  its  being 
divinely  appointed.  We  can  no  more  doubt  the  institution 
of  expiatory  sacrifices,  by  God's  direction,  at  Mt.  Sinai, 
than  we  can  doubt  the  most  authentic  facts  in  history.  But 
there  are  frequent  intimations,  during  the  continuance  of 
that  system,  that  it  was  not  to  endure  forever.  "Will  I  eat 
the  flesh  of  bulls,  or  drink  the  blood  of  goats  ?  "  was  a  start- 
ling inquiry  in  the  ears  of  men  who  had  never  looked  beyond 
the  surface  of  their  sacrifices.  It  was  light  in  advance  of 
his  day  for  David  to  say,  "  The  sacrifices  of  God  are  a  broken 
heart."  Micah  makes  the  bold  appeal,  "  Will  the.  Lord  be 
pleased  with  thousands  of  rams,  or  with  ten  thousands  of 
rivers  of  oil  ?  Shall  I  give  my  first-born  for  my  transgres- 
sion, the  fruit  of  my  body  for  the  sin  of  my  soul  ?  " 

Yet  that  system  of  bloody  offerings  was  appointed  of  God, 
and  had  most  important  meanings  and  effects.  Its  essential 
features  were  these :  there  was  an  order  of  men  selected  by 
divine  choice  as  sacrificers  and  mediators :  they  not  only 
took,  as  Levites.  the  place  of  the  first-born  sons  of  all  the 
Jewish  families  Avho  had  by  their  birthright  been  domestic 


THE  •ATONEMENT   BY   CHRIST'S   DEATH.  41 

priests ;  but  they  were,  under  very  solemn  circumstances, 
substituted  for  them  as  a  ransom.  When  the  first-born  of 
Egypt  ^vere  slain,  the  first-born  of  Israel  were  spared.  And 
as  a  ransom-price  for  them,  Jehovah  appropriated  the  entire 
tribe  of  Levi  to  his  own  immediate  .service  ;  and  then  from 
them  the  priests  were  chosen,  in  Aaron's  line  of  descent. 
The  existence  of  the  priesthood  was  thus  a  continual  exhibi- 
tion both  of  substitution  and  redemption.  These  men  oifered 
to  God  the  valuable  gifts  of  such  as  had  transgressed  his 
commandments.  And  a  large  part  of  the  offerings  were 
sacrifices,  or  the  life-blood  of  the  innocent  in  place  of  that 
of  the  guilty. 

All  these  essential  features  of  the  ancient  sacrifices  are 
preserved  in  the  real  atonement  of  the  New  Testament,  only 
modified  in  their  forms.  There  is  now,  as  then,  a  priest  called 
of  God,  as  Avas  Aaron.  There  is  now,  as  then,  a  valuable 
sacrifice  oifered  by  the  offender  to  the  offended.  But  the 
modification  is  this  :  the  sacrifice  or  loss  is  now  on  the  part 
of  the  offended.  That  constitutes  its  efficacy.  On  the  part 
of  the  offerer  it  is  presented  merely  by  an  humble  acqui- 
escing faith  ;  which  has  ever  been  the  stone  of  stumbling  and 
rock  of  offence  in  the  cross.  There  is  now,  as  then,  a  life 
ofiered.  Blood  poured  forth  from  vital  channels,  as  the 
expression  of  suffering  and  death,  is  the  great  feature  of 
atonement  made  prominent  in  the  ancient  sacrifices,  most 
prominent  in  the  great  expiatory  sacrifice.  The  points  of 
contrast  are  very  fully  drawn  out  in  the  epistle  to  the 
Hebrews.  The  priests  of  the  old  atonement  were  sinners ; 
4* 


42  SERMONS.  ♦ 

the  Priest  of  the  new  expiation  is  holy,  harmless,  undefiled, 
and  separate  from  sinners.  He  did  not  offer  an  expiation  for 
himself,  consequently,  as  they  did.  Death  was  to  them  in 
the  course  of  nature.  With  him  it  was  the  result  of  a  special 
voluntary  consecration.  Their  deaths  had  nothing  remark- 
able. They  lived  for  the  sake  of  their  services.  Dying 
terminated  their  services.  His  death  was  the  end  for  which 
he  came  into  the  world.  It  was  the  crowning  feature  of  his 
eternal  priesthood.  They  ofifered  other  men's  sacrifices  ;  he 
gave  himself  The  priest  and  the  victim  were  in  him  identi- 
cal. They  offered  beasts'  bodies ;  he  offered  a  human  body. 
They  offered  an  animal  spirit ;  he  poured  out  a  human  soul 
on  God's  altar.  Their  priesthood  ended  when  he  was  offering 
his  great  sacrifice.  He  is  "  a  priest  forever  after  the  order 
of  Melchizedek." 

But  there  is  one  peculiar  feature  of  his  atonement,  which 
is  made  prominent  in  the  text. 

2.  His  expiatory  offering  ivas  made  once  and  forever. 
—  They  attended  daily  at  the  altar.  Stated  daily  sacrifices 
required  their  presence  there ;  and  they  must  be  in  attend- 
ance whenever  an  offerer  should  present  himself  And  the 
office  was  hereditary,  so  that  death  might  make  no  breach  in 
the  service.  For  fifteen  hundred  years  they  continued  that 
work  of  the  priesthood,  more  or  less  interrupted  by  wars,  and 
captivities,  and  declensions.  No  man  can  compute  the  num- 
ber of  victims  which  were  slain  by  this  priesthood.  But 
when  the  true  Priest  had  come,  and  the  Lamb  of  God  was 
provided,  then  he  was  offered  once  for  all.     That  death  on  the 


THE   ATONEMENT   BY    CIIRIST'S   DEATH.  43 

little  eminence  called  Calvary  was  the  great  event  of  time 
and  of  eternity.  It  blotted  out  the  law  of  bloody  sacrifices 
and  expiatory  offerings  forever.  It  darkened  the  sun  by  its 
suffering;  and  it  rent  the  veil  of  the  temple,  because  the  mys- 
tery of  the  old  system  was  now  opened  to  the  gaze  of  the 
universe,  and  because  the  way  to  heaven  was  really  opened 
to  us.  It  shook  the  earth  as  the  citadel  of  Satan's  empire, 
and  burst  the  graves  of  the  dead,  as  it  was  the  rending  of  the 
seal  and  sentence  of  death.  So  the  pen  of  inspiration  ex- 
plains the  rending  of  the  veil.  "The  way  into  the  holiest 
of  all  was  not  yet  made  manifest,  while  as  yet  the  first 
tabernacle  was  standing,  which  was  a  figure  for  the  time 
then  present,  in  Avhich  were  offered  both  gifts  and  sacrifices, 
that  could  not  make  him  that  did  the  service  perfect,  as  per- 
taining to  the  conscience ;  but  Christ  being  come  a  high 
priest  of  future  good,  by  a  greater  and  more  perfect  taber- 
nacle, not  made  with  hands ;  neither  by  the  blood  of  goats 
and  calves,  but  by  his  own  blood,  he  entered  in  once  into  the 
holy  place,  having  obtained  eternal  redemption  for  us." 

That  long  succession  of  priests,  and  that  continued  series 
of  expiatory  offerings  by  the  church,  is  very  affecting  to  us, 
viewed  in  its  intrinsic  inefiiciency,  its  merciful  appointment 
by  God,  or  its  real  value  as  issuing  in  and  preparing  for 
the  great  atonement.     We  now  inquire, 

XL  In  what  consisted  the  efficacy  of  Christ's 
SACRIFICE?  —  In  the  text  it  is  said,  "  By  one  offering  he 
perfected  forever  them  that  are  sanctified."  "Sanctify"  is 
used  in  this  epistle  in  a  peculiar  sense,  as  you  may  see  in  the 


44  SERMONS. 

ninth  chapter,  thirteenth  verse,  "vvhere,  speaking  of  the  exter- 
nal and  temporary  influence  of  the  ancient  sacrifices,  they 
are  said  to  have  "sanctified  to  the  purifying  of  the  flesh;" 
that  is,  taken  a-way  the  ceremonial  defilement  -which  hindered 
the  worshipper  from  approaching  God.  Ordinarily  the  New 
Testament  meaning  of  sanctify  is  to  produce  spiritual  or 
inward  purification.  Here  it  includes  that,  but  refers  chiefly 
to  removing  that  guilt  by  which  our  consciences  keep  us  from 
approaching  God,  and  his  holiness  prevents  his  admitting  us 
to  audience  and  communion  with  him. 

The  efficacy  of  the  atonement  consists  in  its  reconciling 
God  to  the  believing  worshipper.  But,  as  some  deny,  and 
others  vaguely  admit,  that  the  atonement  removes  any  obsta- 
cles on  God's  part,  as  a  God  of  justice,  I  Avould  first  show 
from  the  Scriptures  that  it  has  a  two-fold  efficacy,  and  then 
show,  as  far  as  I  may,  wherein  its  efficacy  consists. 

1.  The  Scriptures  assign  to  the  sacrifice  of  Christ  a 
tico-fold  efiUcacy :  as  reconciling  God  to  man,  and  recon- 
ciling man  to  God.  —  If  there  be  not  in  the  human  soul  a 
deep  and  dreadful  apprehension  of  the  wrath  of  God,  then 
there  is  nothing  there.  Individuals  may  escape  it ;  but  nations 
and  generations —  Pagan,  Jewish,  Mohammedan,  or  Christian 
—  testify  to  it.  And  if  the  Gospel  of  Christ  is  not  designed 
to  meet  that  fcelino;,  then  lano;uao;e  has  no  meaning.  Yet 
there  are  those  who  deny  that  the  sacrifice  of  Christ  procures 
any  change  in  God.  I  should  wish  to  ask  any  unsophisticated 
person  that  understands  the  Hebrew,  what  the  Jews  meant 
by  ^^5  ;  and  by  the  expression  yds-i^iz:?  ^y£^ ;  or,  if  he  un- 


THE   ATONEMENT   BY   CHRIST'S   DEATH.  45 

derstands  the  Greek,  wliat  the  Hellenistic  Jews  meant  by 
Hulenjiov  TO  uioiiijua,  fwv ;  ox'  'what  we  mean  by  the  corres- 
ponding words,  forgive  and  forgiveness.  If  a  man  offends 
another  by  a  wrong  act,  there  are  two  evils :  the  wrong  he 
has  done  the  other,  and  the  injury  done  himself  They  are 
two  perfectly  distinct  results  fi'om  the  same  act.  And  no 
sane  man  ever  thought  of  applying  the  term  forgive  to  a  doing 
away  of  the  evil  one  has  inflicted  on  himself  A  man  wounds 
another's  good  name  by  a  falsehood.  Now,  he  may  repent  of 
the  lie  most  sincerely,  and  so  put  aAvay  the  injury  it  inflicted 
on  himself ;  but  that  is  a  very  different  thing  from  being  for- 
given by  the  other.  And  this  distinction  the  Scriptures  most 
fully  recognize.  Repentance  is  one  thing ;  forgiveness,  quite 
another.  Repentance  is  a  human  act,  forgiveness  is  an  act 
of  God.  "  Repent  and  be  converted,  that  your  sins  may  be 
blotted  out."  Now,  the  atonement  produces  both  effects  :  it 
reconciles  the  sinner  to  God,  and  God  to  the  sinner ;  or,  in 
other  words,  produces  repentance  and  forgiveness.  Passages  of 
this  kind  are  very  numerous :  "  Through  this  man  is  preached 
the  forgiveness  of  sins  ;  "  Christ  is  "exalted  a  prince  and  a 
Saviour,  to  give  repentance  and  forgiveness  of  sins :  by  him 
all  that  believe  are  justified  from  all  things,  from  which  they 
could  not  be  justified  by  the  law  of  Moses."  Justification 
and  sanctification  are  entirely  distinct ;  the  one  being  a 
change  in  our  personal  character ;  the  other,  in  our  relations  to 
the  moral  government  of  God.  Christ  is  called  our  passover. 
But  what  was  the  passover  ?  A  lamb  slain,  that  its  sprinkled 
blood  on  the  door-post  might  save  from  death.     The  atone- 


46  SERMONS. 

ment  of  Christ  refers  first  to  past  sins,  and  to  that  relation 
in  which  they  place  us  to  the  justice  of  God.  It  is  in  this 
sense  that  Christ  bore  our  sins.  He  suflFered  in  consequence 
of  them,  that  we  might  not. 

But  the  Scriptures  likewise  assign  to  the  atonement  a 
mighty  effect  on  him  who  receives  it  by  faith.  That  effect  is 
both  direct  and  indirect.  It  acts  directly  on  the  conscience, 
bringing  peace.  This  is  in  part  the  meanjng  of  the  word 
"perfected"  in  the  text.  "Come  unto  me,  ye  weary  and 
burdened ;  I  will  give  you  rest."  "  Being  justified  by  faith, 
we  have  peace  with  God,  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ." 
The  blood  of  Christ,  called  the  blood  of  sprinkling,  is  said  to 
"speak  better  things  than  the  blood  of  Abel :  "  this  crying 
"revenge;"  that,  "forgive."  This  is  the  influence  of  the 
atonement  on  the  guilt-stricken  conscience.  A  guilty  con- 
science forbids  the  sinner  to  approach  even  the  mercy-seat  of 
God.  Therefore  the  Scriptures  say,  "  The  blood  of  Christ 
purges  the  conscience  from  dead  works  to  serve  the  living  God." 
The  indirect  effect  of  the  atonement  in  sanctifying  the  heart 
is  powerfully  taught  in  that  mysterious  language  of  Christ, 
"  whoso  eateth  my  flesh,  and  drinketh  my  blood,  hath  ever- 
lasting life."  Paul  teaches  it,  too,  when  he  says,  "We  are 
crucified  by  the  cross ;  we  are  dead  with  Christ ;  buried  with 
him  by  baptism  into  death." 

Can  we,  then,  explain  this  efficacy  of  the  atonement  ?  The 
Scriptures  enter  into  no  direct  and  profound  explanations  of 
this  point.     But  we  are  permitted  to  contemplate,  and  dis- 


THE  ATONEMENT  BY   CHRIST'S  DEATH.  47 

cover,  by  incidental  light  in  them,  and  by  experience,  at  least 
some  of 

2.  These  sources  or  elemeiits  of  its  power.  —  It  is, 
indeed,  sufficient  for  all  the  practical  purposes  of  life,  that 
we  have  adequate  evidence  of  the  efficacy  or  power  of  any 
substance  or  agent,  without  understanding  the  mode  of  its 
operation.  It  ought  to  be  so  in  religion.  We  have  perfectly 
resolved  anything,  in  fiict,  when  we  have  resolved  it  into  the 
will  of  God.  The  efficacy  of  everything  lies  there.  Steam 
is  powerful.  But  what  do  you  know  about  the  secret  of 
its  power?  You  call  it  expansion.  But  that  is  only  a  name. 
God  has  chosen  that  water  heated  to  a  certain  degree  shall 
possess  certain  powers ;  that  is  to  us  the  ultimate  fact.  So  it 
is  with  light,  with  medical  remedies,  mechanical  powers,  and 
everything  in  nature. 

To  us,  then,  the  testimony  of  God  is  conclusive,  that  the 
sacrifice  offered  by  Christ,  of  himself,  on  the  cross,  has  the 
power  to  secure  forgiveness  from  God,  peace  to  the  human 
conscience,  and  holiness  to  the  human  heart.  We  can  see  in 
the  common  explanation  very  sufficient  reasons  for  the  power 
of  the  atonement  with  God.  It  guards  the  public  interests, 
just  as  the  promulgation  and  execution  of  law  do  ;  only  in  a 
much  greater  degree.  There  are  three  classes  of  minds  to 
be  affected  by  the  atonement :  the  holy,  the  impenitent,  and 
the  penitent.  And  when  we  see  that  on  each  of  these  classes 
the  atonement  strengthens  the  conviction  of  God's  aversion 
to  sin,  we  can  see  why  God  exercises  his  mercy  freely  through 
the  atonement  toward  every  penitent  believer.    The  holy  and 


48  SERMONS. 

the  impenitent  sec  in  tlie  atonement  just  "what  they  see  in  the 
law,  —  suffering,  the  consequence  of  sin.  —  only  under  infi- 
nitely more  impressive  circumstances  than  in  the  execution 
of  the  penalty  of  the  law.  ■  It  is  very  obvious  how  it  affects 
the  conscience  of  the  penitent,  deepening  his  horror  of  sin, 
but  releasing  him  from  despair.  Then  it  comes  upon  his 
heart,  an  everlasting  impulse  of  motive,  constraining  him  to 
live  for  Christ ;  which  is,  to  live  holily.  The  atonement 
includes  all  the  ignominy,  and  sorrow,  and  agony,  to  which 
the  Son  of  God  subjected  himself  for  our  redemption.  God 
must  make  his  feelings  known,  as  we  do,  by  speech  and 
actions.  Voluntary  suffering  is  the  highest  form  of  action, 
giving  to  expressions  of  love  their  deepest  significancy,  and 
most  potent  confirmation.  But  love  to  God  is  the  essence  of 
obedience  to  the  law;  and,  if  he  draws  us  to  love  him,  he 
draws  us  to  obedience.  He  shows  us,  in  the  most  vivid 
form,  his  approbation  of  the  law  by  the  life  and  death  of 
Jesus  Christ ;  his  life  being  an  exhibition  of  perfect  obedi- 
ence to  its  precept ;  and  his  death  being  an  equivalent  to 
enduring  its  penalty,  after  a  life  of  perfect  obedience  to  its 
precept.  His  life  and  death  are  thus  a  constant  appeal  to 
our  consciences,  to  our  sympathies,  and  to  every  generous 
sentiment  of  our  hearts.  Nothing  can  be  more  efficacious 
than  this  to  inspire  a  dread  of  sin,  confidence  in  God,  grate- 
ful obedience,  and  fortitude  in  temptation. 

But  the  text  affirms,  what  we  now  proceed  to  contemplate ; 
that 

III.  The  atonement  consists  in  a  single  oblation.  — 


THE  ATONEMENT  BY   CHRIST'S  DEATH.  49 

"  Bj  one  offering  he  hath  perfected  forever  them  that  are 
sanctified."  This  was  a  stumbling-block  to  the  Jews,  who 
had  always  been  accustomed  to  see  the  daily  repetition  of 
the  oblation.  The  fact  is  so  obvious  to  us,  however,  that  we 
need  not  dwell  upon  it,  that  the  Son  of  God  became  incar- 
nate once,  suffered  on  earth,  and  died  a  violent  death,  once, 
and  is  never  to  repeat  the  process.  The  second  tune  he 
appears  here,  it  will  be  "without  sin  unto  salvation,"  — 
without  the  sins  of  men  imputed  to  him.  But  we  may  sug- 
gest considerations  to  account  for  it : 

1.    The  permanence  or  the  repetition  of  Christ's  suf- 
ferings is  not  necessary  for  the  pinyoses  of  atonement. 
—  If  we  look  at  the  influence  of  it  on  other  beings,  good  and 
bad,  we  can  see  that  the  transient  acts  of  Christ's  life,  and 
the  permanent  assumption  of  our  nature  for  our  redemption, 
are  an  eternal  guarantee  of  his  love  of  the  law.     If  we  look 
at  its  effects  on  the  pardoned,  it  is  sufficient  that  Christ  lived 
here  thirty-three  years,  and  died  once.     The  mother  that 
bore  you,  and  cherished  you  in  infancy's   helpless  years, 
needs  not  repeat  all  that,  in  order  to  convince  you  of  her 
love,   or  to  strengthen  her  claims  upon  your   love.     Our 
fathers  stood  up  and  read  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
in  the  face  of  Britain  and  the  world.     They  laid  all  upon 
the  altar  there,  and  followed  up  that  act  by  the  perils  and 
toils  of  a  dreadful  war.     Do  we  need  the  repetition  of  those 
struggles  and  sacrifices  to  convince  us  of  their  attachment  to 
our  freedom  ?     A  stranger  rushed  into  the  flames,  and  saved 
you  from  a  horrid  death,  when  you  were  a  child.     Have  you 
5 


50  SERMONS. 

ever  forgotten  it  ?  Will  you  ever  forget  it  ?  God  needed 
only  to  express  once,  in  this  form,  his  unvarying  grief  at  our 
sins,  —  his  uncompromising  opposition  to  them.  Nay,  more  : 
2.  The  permanent  suffering  of  the  innocent  and  he)iev- 
olent  Redeemer  woidd  defeat  the  very  end  of  atonement. 
—  That  end  is,  to  diminish  suffering  in  the  universe.  If  we 
are  to  be  saved  at  the  eternal  expense  of  such  a  Being ;  if  he 
is  to  be  forever  buffeted  and  spit  upon,  while  we  are  crowned 
with  glory ;  if  he  is  to  sink  under  the  Father's  frown,  while 
we  rejoice  in  the  light  of  his  countenance,  —  then  the  cost  is 
too  great.  To  awaken  the  most  generous  sentiments  in  the 
hearts  of  the  redeemed,  and  to  sustain  them,  Christ  must  be 
rewarded  with  everlasting  honor  and  joy.  To  enjoy  heaven 
by  the  continued  sufferings  of  our  Friend  and  Redeemer, 
would  make  us  selfish ;  to  see  his  sufferings,  and  not  be 
selfish,  w^ould  make  our  own  happiness  impossible.  "  He 
entered  in  once  into  the  holy  place,  having  obtained  eternal 
redemption  for  us.  Now,  once  in  the  end  of  the  world  hath 
he  appeared,  to  put  away  sin  by  the  sacrifice  of  himself" 
"  By  one  offering  he  hath  perfected  forever  them  that  are 
sanctified."  That  sacrifice  is  sufficient  for  all  who  are 
brought  to  repent.  It  is  an  atonement  for  all,  —  a  redemp- 
tion only  to  them  who  are  sanctified.  It  is  to  them  sufficient 
for  all  their  sins,  —  for  all  time,  —  for  all  eternity.  As  the 
Scriptures  say,  the  old  sacrifices  would  never  have  ceased  to 
be  offered,  if  they  had  possessed  any  real  efficacy;  "because 
that  the  worshippers,  once  purged,  should  have  no  more  con- 
science of  sin."     The  Father  will  forever  retain  the  memory 


THE  ATONEMENT   BY    CHRIST'S   DEATH.  51 

of  that  sacrifice ;  the  universe  will  never  forget  it ;  and  so, 
the  ends  of  justice  shall  be  satisfied.  Sufiering  crowned 
with  glory  will  forever  satisfy  the  heart  of  the  redeemed. 
' '  This  man,  after  he  had  ofiered  one  sacrifice  for  sins,  forever 
sat  down  on  the  right  hand  of  God." 

The  Apostys  argument  has,  to  this  day,  lost  nojie  of 
its  force.  —  The  Jews  understood  the  doctrine  of  propitia- 
tion, or  atonement,  so  imperfectly  as  utterly  to  defeat  its 
design.  There  was  an  external,  civil  benefit  resulting  from 
oifering  their  sacrifices.  "  They  sanctified  to  the  purifying 
of  the  flesh,"  —  that  is,  they  were  a  part  of  their  duty  as 
subjects  of  that  civil  estate  of  which  Jehovah  was  directly 
the  King.  He  rewarded  obedience  to  it  as  a  civil  require- 
ment by  civil  benefits.  But  they  went  away,  blessed  in 
their  outward  estate  by  their  king,  from  that  altar,  while  the 
curse  of  their  God,  for  unpardoned  sin,  remained  on  their 
souls.  And  even  when  the  Antitype  had  come,  they  refused 
to  believe  in  the  Lamb  of  God,  who  by  his  sacrifice  taketh 
away  the  sin  of  the  world.  They  wanted  still  a  daily  ofier- 
ing,  and  would  not  believe  in  that  one  perfect,  eternal  Ofier- 
ing  for  sin.  Their  spirit  is  still  perpetuated  among  us,  under 
the  garb  of  Christianity.  In  the  churches  of  Rome,  Russia, 
and  England,  there  are  priests  still  ofiering  up  daily  sacrifice 
for  sin.  The  very  name  of  priest,  applied  to  a  New  Testa- 
ment minister,  is  suspicious.  Masses,  penances,  mediators, 
purgatory,  the  ofiering  of  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ  liter- 
ally, are  all  so  many  contradictions  of  the  unity  and  perfect- 
ness  of  Christ's  atonement.     The  sacrifice  of  sacraments, 


52  SEKMONS. 

and  the  atoning  power  of  our  alms-givings,  penitence,  and 
praying,  are  enemies  of  the  cross  of  Christ.  To  them  all 
Paul  says,  "It  is  not  possible  that"  they  " should  take  away 
sins."  "  We  are  sanctified  through  the  offering  of  the  body 
of  Christ,  once  for  all."  "  Every  priest  standeth  daily, 
ministering,  and  offering  oftentimes  the  same  sacrifices,  which 
can  never  take  away  sins ;  but  this  man,  after  he  had  offered 
one  sacrifice  for  sins,  forever  sat  down  on  the  right  hand  of 
God ;  for  by  one  offering  he  hath  forever  perfected  them  that 
are  sanctified." 

We  see  icho  they  are  that  receive  the  full  benefit  of  the 
atonement.  —  Not  they  who  merely  have  the  sentence  of 
eternal  death  temporarily  suspended  by  the  atonement,  — 
that  is,  the  benefit  of  it,  which  all  enjoy ;  since,  but  for 
Christ's  death,  this  divine  forbearance  would  be  impossible ; 
but  it  is  so  far  only  a  suspension.  Nor  do  they  receive  the 
full  benefit  of  Christ's  death  who  justify  themselves  to  their 
own  consciences  only,  and  not  to  God,  —  who  say  and  believe 
they  have  not  deserved  death.  This  may  satisfy  their  own 
consciences ;  but  it  is  only  Christ's  sacrifice  that  satisfies 
God's  justice.  Nor  do  they  get  the  full  benefit  of  Christ's 
great  offering  who  attempt  to  satisfy  God  with  the  atone- 
ment of  Christ,  without  applying  it  to  their  own  hearts  for 
sanctification. 

They  only  are  truly  benefited  by  the  wonderful  sacrifice 
made  by  the  Son  of  God,  who  truly  return  to  God  by  it,  — 
who  use  it  equally  with  God,  their  own  consciences,  and  their 
hearts. 


THE    ATONEMENT    BY    CHRIST'S   DEATH.  53 

Why,  then,  do  any  reject  this  atonement  ?  Some  do  it 
from  insensibility  to  their  guilt;  while  others,  sensible  of 
their  need  of  an  atonement,  doubt  whether,  after  all,  God 
has  grace  enough  to  receive  them  through  it.  Most  persons, 
however,  reject  it  from  an  aversion  to  its  very  principle,  it 
pronounces  so  emphatically  and  awfully  the  demerit  of  our 
souls,  our  guilt,  our  helplessness,  the  worthlessness  of  our 
services,  and  the  moral  equality  of  the  whole  unregenerated 
race  of  men.  These  aspects  of  it  repel  every  sinful  sensi- 
bility of  the  human  heart,  and  chiefly  its  pride.  Here  is 
"  the  offence  of  the  cross," 

Then  let  us  rightly  use  the  atonement  of  Christ,  by  making 
it  the  only  basis  of  our  peace  with  God,  —  of  our  present 
enjoyment,  and  our  hope  of  future  good.  Some,  even  in  the 
church,  have  peace  and  hope  from  other  sources.  But  these 
streams  are  not  healthful  nor  permanent.  We  must  apply  to 
our  consciences  "the  blood  of  sprinkling,"  —  make  the  "one 
offering"  of  Christ  the  object  of  our  delighted  contempla- 
tion. "  Precious  blood  of  Christ "  is  a  Scripture  phrase 
we  must  comprehend  and  adopt.  We  must  see  that  Christ  is 
"  a  sweet  savor  to  God."  We  must  "  glory  in  the  cross  of 
Christ."  We  are  also  to  apply  it  to  our  hearts,  saying, 
"  Alas  !  and  did  my  Saviour  bleed?  Was  it  for  crimes  that 
I  had  done  he  groaned  upon  the  tree?"  And  when  we 
repeat  these  words,  it  is  not  to  pity  him  as  now  suffering, 
but  to  sympathize  with  his  past  suffering,  —  to  remind  our- 
selves that  he  would  suffer  again,  if  it  were  necessary,  for 
us,  —  that  we  virtually  repeat  his  crucifixion  by  our  sins. 
5* 


54  SERMONS. 

"We  cannot  too  often,  in  imagination,  visit  that  garden  "where 
he  bowed,  and  cried,  "  Father,  if  thou  wilt,  let  this  cup  pass 
from  me."  These  visits  are  not  gloomy,  but  penitentially 
tender,  and  reverentially  sympathizing,  grateful,  tearful,  joy- 
ful ;  like  showers  watering  the  germs  of  hope  that  grace  has 
planted  in  our  souls. 

0,  proclaim  to  the  world,  burdened  with  the  vague  con- 
sciousness of  guilt,  that  they  are  guilty,  but  that  here  is  an 
atonement  for  guilt !  Let  every  one  that  heareth  the  glad 
tidings,  be  a  missionary !  Proclaim  it  to  Pagan,  Papist, 
IMohammedan,  Infidel,  Jew,  and  the  most  careless  worldling. 
Here  is  the  rock  of  hope ;  here  is  the  door  of  life ;  here  is 
the  balm  to  heal  the  soul's  disease,  and  to  give  it  an  immor- 
tal life. 


lY. 

THE  MIRACLES. 


"•33clifbc  me  tfjat  I  am  in  tf)«  JFatfjtr,  anti  tfjf  JTatfjcr  in  mc:    or 
rise  bdiflir  ntc  for  tfjs  Serg  toorfes'  sake." — John  14:  11. 

Christ  was  here  addressing  only  his  eleven  apostles. 
They  believed  already  much,  but  not  all.  They  received 
him  as  the  long-expected  INIessiah  ;  as  a  true  prophet,  as  the 
greatest  of  prophets ;  but  they  did  not  know  that  he  was  "  in 
the  Father,  and  the  Father  in  him  ;  "  that  he  is  the  "Word 
that  "in  the  beginning  was  with  God,  and  was  God."  He 
wanted  them  to  see  by  faith  the  Godhead  in  his  lowly  form. 

He  therefore  brings  all  the  weight  of  his  veracity  to  create 
in  them  a  full  belief  in  his  divinity.  They  ought  to  believe 
him.  There  is  a  moral  obligation  to  believe  in  goodness 
wherever  it  is  exhibited,  in  moral  truth  wherever  it  is  spoken, 
in  God  whenever  he  speaks.  But  God  accommodates  him- 
self to  man's  infirmity,  and  addresses  him  through  works  of 
such  a  kind  that  his  reason  will  not,  or  should  not,  suffer  him 
to  doubt  they  are  divine  works. 

Christ  had  now  been  with  those  men  more  than  three 
years.  They  had  witnessed  his  works ;  beginning  with  the 
miracle  at  the  weddmg,  ending  with  the  miraculous  informa- 


56  SERMONS. 

tion  that  they  should  meet  a  man  on  their  path,  bearing  a 
pitcher,  as  they  entered  the  city,  who  would,  at  his  request, 
furnish  them  a  room  for  the  passover.  The  stupendous  miracle 
of  the  resurrection  had  not  yet  occurred.  But  at  least  thirty- 
six  miraculous  works  are  described,  and  many  more  merely 
alluded  to.  Three  times  he  had  caused  fish  to  enter  the  nets 
of  his  disciples  in  a  supernatural  way.  He  had,  by  a  word, 
furnished  bread  for  twelve  thousand  persons.  He  had  walked 
on  the  stormy  sea,  and  upheld  Peter  on  it.  He  had  twice 
calmed  the  tempest  by  a  word.  He  had  healed  eight  sick 
persons,  one  lunatic,  six  blind,  eleven  lepers,  one  paralytic, 
one  with  a  withered  hand,  five  demoniacs,  one  deaf  mute,  and 
raised  three  dead  persons  to  life.  And  there  are  frequently 
expressions  used  by  the  Evangelists,  which  show  that  these 
were  but  a  small  portion  of  his  miraculous  deeds. 

To  these  works  he  now  refers,  and  says,  Believe  me  on 
their  account,  if  not  on  my  own  statement.  They  unveil  my 
divinity,  surely. 

I  shall  now  propose  two  inquiries.  Should  we  believe 
that  these  miracles  were  ever  performed  ?  Should  we  believe 
Christ  on  account  of  them? 

I.  Should  we  believe  the  miracles  ?  —  This  question 
subdivides  itself,  to  meet  different  objections. 

1.  A7-e  miracles  possible  ? — Mr.  Hume  says,  no ;  Spinoza 
says,  no ;  and  a  thousand  less  acute  and  less  learned  echo, 
no.  Shall  we  repeat  their  echo  ?  If  we  must,  let  us  do  it 
with  understanding.  It  has  seemed  to  some  men  that  they 
were  increasing  in  wisdom  in  proportion  as  they  doubted 


THE   MIRACLES.  57 

what  others  believed.  They  have  even  gloried  in  the  title 
of  sceptic.  But  they  were  deceived ;  for  there  are  very  few 
sceptics,  if  any,  in  the  world.  Some  have  gloried  in  having 
no  creed.  But  they  deceived  themselves.  They  had  a  creed. 
Now,  on  the  subject  of  miracles  our  modern  infidels  are  stout 
believers.  They  believe  that  if  God  desires  to  bring  a  ncAV 
power  into  his  creation,  he  cannot  do  it.  That,  surely,  is 
strong  believing.  But  that  is  what  is  meant  by  saying  "a 
miracle  is  impossible."  And  you  that  mean  to  be  sceptics 
should  not  have  so  strong  an  article  in  your  creed.  It  is  not 
only  too  much  of  a  creed,  but  it  is  bigoted.  It  will  keep  us 
out  of  your  infidel  church,  because  we  have  not  strong  enough 
faith  to  believe  that  an  almighty  God,  who  made  everything 
out  of  nothing,  cannot  make  something  out  of  something ; 
that  he  who  could  make  living  men  from  dust,  could  not  make 
a  living  man  of  a  dead  one. 

"Miracles  impossible!"  How  often  the  changes  have 
been  rung  upon  that  groundless  dogma  !  If  they  were  im- 
possible, how  are  we  to  find  it  out?  "By  our  reason,"  we 
are  told.  But  what  is  meant  by  reason  ?  —  intuitive  percep- 
tion ?  Whose  ?  If  mine,  it  does  not  tell  me  so.  Another 
man's  ?  Then  I  am  divided  in  my  believing ;  for  A  says  it 
is,  and  B  says  it  is  not.  Is  it  reasoning  ?  Then  you  can 
tell  me  yours.  Perhaps  you  have  adopted  that  of  Mr.  Hume, 
"the  order  of  nature  cannot  be  violated."  But  what  do  you 
mean  by  the  order  of  nature  ?  A  power  above  God  ?  Did 
he  exhaust  himself  in  creation  ?  Did  he  give  nature  more 
power  than  he  possessed  himself?     If  not,  then  I  cannot 


58  SERMONS. 

infer  that  lie  cannot  introduce  a  new  power  to  change  the 
course  of  things,  if  he  thinks  it  best  to  do  so.  No  man  can 
prove  that  miracles  are  beyond  the  power  of  the  Almighty. 

I  sit  at  the  feet  of  a  learned  geologist,  and  he  shows  me  a 
beginning  of  an  order  of  animals.  He  pauses  with  reverence 
there,  and  says  a  new  power  here  comes  into  exercise ;  noth- 
ing that  has  gone  before,  accounts  for  this.  We  then  pass 
over  a  series  of  strata,  and,  lo  !  there  breaks  upon  our  vision 
another  new  order.  Creative  power !  he  exclaims.  A 
miracle  !  He  comes  on  to  man,  not  growing  out  of  a  pump- 
kin or  a  monkey,  but  made  man  in  the  image  of  God ;  made 
by  no  power  or  law  that  preceded,  but  by  a  miracle,  contrary 
to  all  God's  former  experience.  Am  I  now  to  believe  the 
geologist  or  the  theologian  ?     Then  another  inquiry  arises. 

2.  Are  miracles  improbable  or  incredible  ?  —  It  has  been, 
and  still  is,  so  aflfirmed.  Mr.  Hume  maintained  that,  even 
if  a  miracle  could  be  performed,  it  could  not  be  substantiated 
by  any  amount  of  testimony.  Jesus  Christ,  therefore,  never 
did  raise  the  dead,  nor  calm  the  tempest  by  a  word,  nor 
himself  rise  from  the  dead. 

And  Mr.  Hume,  and  other  unbelieving  believers,  know  it, 
not  by  being  older  than  other  people,  not  by  having  been 
cotemporary  with  Christ ;  but  simply  and  solely  liy  the 
insight  they  have  into  the  capacities  of  an  omnipotent  God. 
They  have  reasoned  out  a  path  for  the  Almighty  to  walk  in, 
and  a  work  for  him  to  do ;  and  he  must  not  go  beyond  it. 
Yes,  this  is  the  absurdity  of  self-conceited  wisdom.  It  could 
not  invent  a  blade  of  grass,  not  make  the  wing  of  a  butterfly ; 


THE   MIRACLES.  69 

but  it  knows  absolutely  that  God  cannot  bring  a  dead  man 
to  life  !  Again,  I  inquire,  on  -svhat  ground  can  a  man  living 
in  America,  in  the  year  1853,  affirm  concerning  a  person 
living  in  Syria,  in  the  year  33,  that  he  did  not  do  all 
that  ?  Simply  on  the  general  ground  of  the  impossibility  of 
believing  anything  that  contradicts  our  own  experience,  and 
that  of  our  neighbors.  For  instance,  we  have  always  seen 
the  sun  rise  in  the  east,  and  set  in  the  west.  We  can,  there- 
fore, believe  no  degree  of  testimony  whatever,  that  should 
affirm  the  sun  set  in  the  east  on  a  certain  evening,  and  rose  in 
the  west  the  next  morning.  And  if  man  should  not  believe 
it,  on  account  of  its  intrinsic  improbability,  then  God  should 
not ;  for,  if  it  is  not  true,  it  is  as  contrary  to  his  experience  as 
to  ours.  When  so  great  an  event  is  affirmed  as  that  a  dead 
body  at  a  command  rose  up  in  life  and  health,  we  must  not 
believe  it,  and  God  must  not  believe  it.  And  the  reason  of 
this  necessity  is  a  universal,  eternal  principle.  "What  is 
contrary  to  all  experience  cannot  be  true."  Now,  let  us  see 
where  that  reasoning  will  carry  us.  In  all  God's  existence 
there  never  was  a  moment  when  man  could  begin  to  exist. 
Why  ?  Because,  up  to  that  moment,  God  had  never  had  the 
experience  of  a  man  beginning  to  exist,  of  something  made 
out  of  nothing,  or  a  living  man  out  of  dead  matter.  There- 
fore, the  human  race  is  coeternal  with  God,  and  never  was 
made  by  him.  Atheism  is  consistent  for  those  who  pretend 
to  be  eminently  logical,  and  deny  the  possibility  of  believing 
a  miracle,  but  nothing  short  of  it  is  so ;  it  is  not  logical, 
but  cowardly  and  illogical.      As   one   well   says,  "Deny 


60  SERMONS. 

revelation,  and  I  can  push  you  irresistibly  to  atheism ;  John 
Marshall  himself  cannot  resist  me." 

Passing,  then,  a^vay  from  these  absurd  positions,  -we  en- 
counter this  rational  inquiry  affecting  the  probability  of 
miracles  :  Is  it  not  unlikely  that  our  beneficent  Creator  would 
disturb  that  regular  order  of  events,  that  sequence  of  causes 
and  effects  on  -which  science  is  founded,  on  -which  human 
happiness  and  the  progress  of  society  are  so  dependent  ? 
The  simple  and  complete  ans-wer  to  that  reasonable  inquiry 
is,  if  .a  beneficent  Creator  can  answer  a  purpose  of  sufficient 
importance,  he  may  do  so ;  and,  especially,  if  it  be  done  so 
infrequently,  and  on  so  limited  a  scale,  as  not  to  derange  the 
order  of  the  universe.  And  such  is  the  character  of  the 
miracles  of  Jesus.  They  have  caused  no  law  of  nature  to 
cease  its  regular  operation,  and  they  have  aided  a  faith  that 
saves  the  soul. 

We  come  now  directly  to  meet  the  main  question  again. 
Having  disposed  of  the  two  chief  objections,  that  miracles 
are  impossible,  or,  at  least,  incredible,  we  inquire, 

3.  Have  ice  a  sufficient  and  satisfactory  ground  of 
belief  that  Christ  ■performed  those  miraculous  icorks 
which  are  attributed  to  him  iti  the  Nero  Testament?  — 
Having  disposed  of  those  two  difficulties,  as  questions  of 
philosophy,  this  question  becomes  one  of  mere  history.  And 
we  meet  it  as  we  do  any  other  question  of  authenticity  in 
historical  documents.  There  are  many  false  records  in 
history.  The  canons  of  historical  criticism  are,  however,  so 
definite  and  sound,  that  no  doubt  remains  in  any  sane  mind 


THE   MIRACLES.  61 

whether  Julius  Caesar  entered  Gaul  and  Britain  as  a  con- 
queror ;  whether,  in  a  word,  his  record  of  that  expedition  is 
substantially  true.  Precisely  the  same  tests  will  show  that 
Jesus  lived  in  Syria  at  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era. 
It  is  so  certain,  that  the  civilized  world  dates  from  the  begin- 
ning of  his  history  as  recorded  by  four  writers  in  the  Bible. 
There  is  a  perfect  chain  of  evidence  that  those  four 
monographers  appeared  while  the  generation  yet  existed,  that 
was  cotemporaneous  with  Christ ;  that  the  miracles  were 
declared  to  have  taken  place  while  yet  the  persons  were 
living  who  could  have  contradicted  the  narrative ;  that  the 
Christian  church  was  founded  on  the  faith  of  the  miraculous 
person  and  works  of  Jesus  Christ ;  and  men  perished  by 
thousands  in  and  for  affirming  the  truth  of  them. 

Now,  as  has  been  well  urged,  there  is  in  these  facts  a 
moral  miracle  more  astonishing  than  any  of  these  physical 
miracles,  provided  there  were  never  such  a  personage,  or  that 
he  never  performed  such  works. 

The  case  may  be  stated  thus :  There  lived  in  Syria,  about 
eighteen  hundred  years  ago,  a  large  number  of  respectable 
and  sensible  people,  who  affirmed,  by  writing  and  orally,  that 
they  had  seen  Jesus  of  Nazareth ;  that  some  had  witnessed 
his  calling  the  dead  to  life,  and  various  other  miraculous 
deeds ;  and  in  every  part  of  the  country  they  named  the 
places  and  the  persons.  They  declared,  concerning  a  man 
bom  blind,  that  the  Pharisees  had  expelled  him  from  the 
synagogue  for  his  faith  in  his  own  healing  ;  that  they  knew 
Lazarus  had  been  raised  from  the  dead,  and  that  they  sought 
6 


62  SERMONS. 

to  put  him  out  of  the  way.  Nay,  there  were  five  hundred 
who  affirmed  that  they  saw  Jesus  himself  alive,  after  he  had 
been  dead.  Their  enemies  opposed  them,  murdered  them ; 
but  none  of  that  age  are  known  ever  to  have  contradicted  the 
facts  they  asserted.  That  was  reserved  for  men  of  a  remoter 
age,  and  of  distant  countries.  Now,  the  moral  miracle 
here  involved  is,  that  these  people  could  have  been  got  to 
make  up  such  a  story,  if  it  be  a  fabrication  ;  that  they  should 
have  named  Lazarus,  and  Bartimeus,  and  Bethany,  and 
Jerusalem ;  that  they  should  have  proclaimed  these  facts  in 
the  face  of  intelligent  enemies ;  that  before  the  Roman  tribu- 
nal they  should  have  insisted  on  them ;  that  they  should  have 
endured  every  form  of  insult,  injury,  and  murder,  out  of 
confidence  in  these  facts ;  that  with  the  false  testimony  of 
Matthew,  Mark,  Luke,  and  John,  should  be  joined  the  per- 
fect character  and  perfect  moral  code  of  Christ ;  and  that  on 
all  this  base  imposture  should  be  founded  all  modern 
civilization  ! 

On  grounds  purely  historical,  we  then  believe  that  Jesus 
Christ  performed  the  miraculous  works  attributed  to  him. 

Our  second  inquiry  was  this : 

IL  Should  we  be  induced  by  them  to  admit  the 
CLAIMS  OF  Christ  to  Divinity  ?  —  We  should,  because 

1.  They  are  the  acts  of  a  Creator.  —  Creation  does  not 
display  allmightness,  or  infinite  might ;  only  the  power  that 
to  us  is  without  limit ;  and  which,  therefore,  we  should  pre- 
sume to  be  infinite.  But,  whatever  power  creation  displays, 
a  true  miracle  exhibits  the  same.     And,  as  we  have  the 


THE   MIRACLES.  63 

admission  of  all  deists  and  infidels  that  the  acts  attributed  to 
Jesus  Christ,  if  realities,  are  a  mastery  over  the  powers  of 
nature,  we  need  not  now  go  into  an  exhibition  of  our  reasons 
for  believing  it  to  be  so.  To  us,  Christ  standing  on  the  sea, 
and  bidding  the  winds  and  waves  to  be  still,  and  thus  bj  a  word 
controlling  their  tremendous  material  energy,  is  just  as  much 
an  exhibition  of  Godhead,  as  the  causing  light  to  exist  by  a 
word.  In  fact,  to  us  there  is  a  strong  significancy  in  his 
performing  his  miraculous  works  generally  by  a  word,  when 
a  simple  volition  would  have  been  as  efiicient.  We  recognize 
the  same  voice  saying,  "  Let  there  be  light !  "  that  said, 
"  Lazarus,  come  forth  !  "  "  Young  man,  I  say  unto  thee 
arise  ! "  Yes ;  we  believe  him  "  for  the  works'  sake." 
"  He  is  in  the  Father,  and  the  Father  in  him." 

But  must  we,  then,  attribute  divinity  to  every  man  perform- 
ing miracles  ?  By  no  means.  And  this  leads  me  to  remark 
further,  that 

2.  Christ  is  the  efficient  agent  in  all  miracles.  —  It 
would  carry  us  too  far  into  a  mere  branch  of  our  subject  to 
produce  the  evidence  that  this  is  true  of  the  Old  Testament 
miracles.  It  Avill  suffice  for  our  present  purpose  to  show  it 
concerning  those  of  the  New  Testament.  The  evidence  lies 
in  these  facts :  Christ  promised  to  give  this  supernatural 
power  to  his  apostles  ;  they  always  recognized  it  as  his,  and 
employed  it  to  commend  him.  Tiie  moral  impression  pro- 
duced by  the  apostles'  miraculous  works  was  never  to 
secure  glory  to  themselves,  but  to  inspire  confidence  in 
Christ's  divinity,  and  in  the  divine  origin  of  Christianity. 


64  SERMONS. 

We  have  the  record  of  his  first  commission  and  instructions 
to  his  apostles.  I  will  quote  it  in  part :  "  And  when  he  had 
called  unto  him  his  twelve  disciples,  he  gave  them  power  over 
unclean  spirits,  to  cast  them  out,  and  to  heal  all  manner  of 
sickness,  and  all  manner  of  disease."  This  was  repeated 
afterwards,  in  various  forms.  In  order  definitely  and  posi- 
tively to  show  the  divine  or  Messianic  origin  of  the  wonder- 
ful powers  which  clothed  the  apostles,  they  were  commanded 
to  tarry  at  Jerusalem  until  the  Spirit  should  descend  upon 
them.  He  came  down  with  most  impressive  external  signs. 
Thus  the  apostle  addressed  the  multitude  wondering  at  the 
gift  of  tongues,  declaring  to  them  that  Christ  was  then 
exalted  at  the  right  hand  of  the  Father,  and  had  shed  forth 
that  influence.  And  afterward  two  of  them  most  earnestly 
entreated  the  people  not  to  offer  sacrifices  to  them,  nor  to 
look  on  them  as  though  their  holiness  or  power  had  performed 
these  wonderful  things.  It  was  Christ,  and  not  they ;  and 
everywhere  there  were  converts,  not  to  Peter  and  Thomas, 
but  to  Christ,  as  the  result  of  this  exercise  of  miraculous 
power.  Christianity  came  into  existence,  a  faith  in  Christ 
as  God  working  with  a  power  above  the  powers  of  nature. 
There  can  be  no  question,  to  any  attentive  reader,  that  the 
whole  glory  of  miracles,  by  whomsoever  performed,  concen- 
trates on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ ;  and  that  they  were  wrought 
only  to  produce  faith  in  him ;  and  that  such  was  their 
effect. 

But  we  have  not  quite  completed  our  argument  until  we 
consider  one  more  fiict. 


THE   MIRACLES.  65 

8.   The  Lord  Jesus  "performed  miracles  by  his  own 
power.  —  He  is  not  separate  from  the  Father  in  essence ;  he 
is  distinct  in  person,  and  subordinate  in  office.     This  official 
subordination  sometimes  requires  that  the  Father  shall  be 
made  prominent  and  chief.     But  when  the  proper  occasion 
comes,  the  Son  is  distinctly  recognized  as  being  the  omnip- 
otent Creator  of  nature,  and  the  omnipotent  source  of  the 
power  to  transcend  nature:  to  counteract  that  tremendous 
moral  power  which  has  brought  disorder  into  nature,   and 
turned  its  forces  into  destructive  channels.     The  Son  of  God 
"  was   manifested  to  destroy  the  works  of  the  devil."     He 
comes  to  meet  him  on  his  field  of  victory,  and  to  undo  by 
moral  power  his  mischievous  work.      But,    subordinate  to 
that,  he   meets   him,  and  overthrows    him  in  nature.     He 
speaks  to  devils  ;  not  as  the  apostles  did,  in  another's  name, 
but  in  his  own  name  he  bids  them  quit  their  usurped  posses- 
sion of  human  bodies.     He  commands  winds  and  waves  to 
allay  their  fury.     He  everywhere  presents   himself  as  the 
being  that  is  doing  it.     And  yet,  lest  men  should  rest  in  his 
human  nature,  he  frequently  repeats  that  the  Father  is  in 
him,  and  he  in  the  Father ;  and  the  works  that  he  has  seen 
with  the  Father,  he  does. 

When  Jesus  was  about  to  ascend  to  heaven,  he  said  to  his 
apostles  :  "Ye  shall  receive  power  after  that  the  Holy  Ghost 
is  come  upon  you ;  and  ye  shall  be  witnesses  unto  me,  both 
in  Jerusalem,  and  in  all  Judea,  and  in  Samaria,  and  unto  the 
uttermost  parts  of  the  earth."  And  that  was  thenceforward 
their  work,  and  the  object  of  all  their  miraculous  deeds ;  to 
6* 


66  SERMONS. 

bear  witness  to  the  divine  glory  of  Christ,  his  redeeming 
sacrifice,  and  his  second  coming,  to  judge  the  world.  When 
he  called  Lazarus  to  life  he  did  it  hj  a  divine  power ;  not 
apart  from  the  Father,  nor  independent  of  the  Father ;  but 
in  his  eternal  unity  with  the  Father,  and  his  mediatorial 
subordination  to  him.  But  when  Peter  came  to  open  the 
series  of  apostolic  miracles,  under  the  new  dispensation  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  he  said  to  the  cripple,  "In  the  name  of 
Jesus  Christ  of  Nazareth,  rise  up  and  walk." 

We  see,  then,  what  use  toe  are  to  make  of-  the  mira- 
cles recorded  in  the  Scriptures.  —  They  do  not  strike  us  as 
wonders  now.  That  is,  they  cannot  impress  our  feelings  as 
if  we  had  seen  them ;  nor  would  they  then,  if  we  should  have 
seen  them  repeated  frequently.  But  they  are  to  us  an  indis- 
pensable part  of  the  history  of  redemption.  If  the  stupen- 
dous miracle  of  redemption  is  to  be  performed,  and  if  it 
involves  the  miracle  of  an  incarnation  of  the  Son  of  God, 
then  we  must  look  for  some  correspondent  signs  in  nature. 
Prophetic  eyes  must  gaze  on  his  coming,  from  afar.  The 
Old  Testament  church  must  have  many  signs  and  wonders 
pointing  to  him.  Prodigies  must  attend  his  birth,  his  life, 
and  his  death.  Coming  to  deliver  men  from  the  crushing 
power  of  natural  laws  now  under  the  control  of  moral  evil, 
he  must  show,  himself  above  those  laws.  Coming  to  set  us 
free  from  Death's  dark  domain,  he  must  bring  some  trophies 
from  Death's  territory,  while  he  is  yet  among  us.  lie  must 
bid  Death  come  forth,  and  confess  him  Conqueror. 

And,  then,  all  that  represent  him  prominently  must  have 


THE   MIRACLES.  67 

something  of  the  same  mark  of  heavenly  power.  Therefore, 
we  are  not  surprised  to  see  Moses  a  man  endowed  with  im- 
mense power  to  work  miracles.  What,  if  we  had  seen  him 
smiting  Egypt  with  plague  after  plague,  and  relieving  the 
wretched  monarch  from  each,  at  his  solicitation;  should 
we  not  have  believed  that  Moses  was  sent  from  on  high  ? 
His  guiding  that  people  through  the  Red  Sea,  while  it  closes 
upon  their  enemies ;  these,  and  the  other  stupendous  works 
of  jNIoses,  Joshua,  and  Elijah,  acquire  to  us  the  highest 
degree  of  probability,  when  we  come  to  learn  their  relations 
to  Christ.  They  foreshadowed  his  coming,  who  holds  all 
nature  in  the  hollow  of  his  hand,  and  who  is  to  redeem  man 
by  his  own  subjection  to  the  power  of  evil.  The  miracles  of 
Moses  and  Christ  are  not  so  much  to  convince  us,  as  to  sat- 
isfy a  want.  Their  absence  would  be  an  irreparable  defect. 
To  hear  Christ  talk  of  delivering  us  from  death,  and  yet 
the  leaden  dominion  of  death  to  remain  undisturbed  by  him, 
in  the  persons  of  his  own  discijjles,  and  then  at  length  in  his 
own ;  to  be  called  to  believe  in  a  dead  Saviour,  —  all  that 
might  stagger  our  faith.  But  God  has  subjected  it  to  no 
such  trial.  "  Now  is  Christ  risen,  and  become  the  first  fruits 
of  them  that  sleep."  Go  tell  John  or  Theodore,  or  any 
other  inquirer  or  doubter,  that  "the  blind  receive  their  sight, 
and  the  lame  walk,  the  lepers  are  cleansed,  the  deaf  hear, 
the  dead  are  raised  up,  and  the  poor  have  the  Gospel  preached 
to  them,  and  blessed  is  he  whosoever  shall  not  be  offended  m" 
Jesus. 

But,  it  is  said,  others,  not  associated  with  Christ,  nor  con- 


68  SERMONS. 

nected  in  any  way  with  Christianity,  have  performed  prodi- 
gies. A  glance  at  these  will  suffice.  They  occupy  three 
distinct  positions  :  they  are  cither  genuine  wonder-workers, 
great  bunglers,  or  simply  great  boasters.  The  magicians 
of  Egypt  were  the  most  respectable  of  their  order.  They 
worked  with  the  aid  of  the  devil,  their  master  ;  in  all  proba- 
bility not  to  do  real  miracles,  but  to  conjure  wonderfully. 
That  is  just  what  we  might  expect.  The  Son  of  God  comes 
to  meet  the  Prince  of  Darkness  in  a  moral  struggle  for  the 
mastery  over  man.  Both  of  them  make  nature  tremble  in 
her  orb  with  the  fierceness  of  their  battle-strokes.  Men 
have  given  themselves  to  Satan ;  and  he  has  rewarded  them 
with  his  aid. 

But  your  blunderers  are  in  the  Roman  church,  with  their 
winking  dolls,  and  specimens  of  martyr-blood,  liquefying  on 
every  anniversary  of  the  saint,  for  centuries.  Your  boastera 
are  like  Mohammed  and  the  Mormons  ;  doing  their  miracles 
where  no  enemy  can  witness  them  ;  can  test  them,  or  contra- 
dict them. 

The  history  of  Deism  furnishes  a  strong  illustration 
of  the  Scripture  :  "  He  taketh  the  icise  in  their  own 
craftiness.^'' — We  are  prepared  to  demonstrate  that  the 
systems  of  Deists,  or  rather  their  theories,  are  always  self- 
destructive  ;  being  contradictory  to  facts,  and  contradictory  to 
themselves.  When  man  undertakes  to  set  his  wisdom  against 
God,  he  overreaches,  and  trips  fatally  somewhere.  He  ap- 
pears to  his  admirers  very  strong,  very  learned,  very  witty ; 
but,  to  men  of  sober  reflection,  sifting  his  pretensions,  and 


THE  MIRACLES.  69 

comparing  his  sayings  with  his  sayings,  there  are  in  every 
one  of  their  theories  the  seeds  of  its  own  destruction. 

To  select  a  few  instances  :  These  gentlemen  strenuously 
oppose  all  dogmatizing ;  by  which  I  understand  them  to 
mean  assertinsi;  thinjrs  to  be  true  because  we  wish  them  to  be 
true,  without  a  suflScient  evidence  of  their  truth,  and  against 
satisfactory  evidence.  This  is  precisely  the  characteristic  of 
every  sceptical  w^riter  Avhose  Avorks  I  know.  Against  all  the 
strong  array  of  evidence  which  supports  the  miraculous  facts 
of  the  New  Testament,  the  people  of  Boston,  for  instance, 
are  called  on,  on  the  mere  assertion  of  one  who  has  no  means 
of  judging  that  all  have  not,  to  renounce  their  belief  in 
these  facts,  because  they  are  in  his  view  impossibilities. 
Does  he  prove  them  so  by  sound  reasoning  ?  Does  he  find 
a  logic  that  limits  the  Almighty?  Has  he  historical  evi- 
dence ?  Nothing  of  all  this.  His  only  argument  may  be 
thus  applied  to  another  case,  to  test  its  value.  There  have 
been  many  forged  notes  on  the  Bank  of  England ;  therefore 
the  Bank  of  England  never  issued  any  genuine  notes.  And 
yet,  when  some  hear  his  strong  appeals  against  dogmatizing, 
they  elate  their  brow,  and  say.  What  a  happy  people  we  are 
to  have  got  away  from  the  dogmatizers  !  These  philosophers 
object  to  prophecy.  But  when  they  prophesy  the  good  time 
that  is  coming,  the  infidel  millennium  that  is  to  bless  the 
earth,  then  everybody  must  have  ftiith.  Isaiah  is  a  misera- 
ble pretender ;  but  these  men,  they  are  the  true  prophets. 
To  escape  the  charge  of  dogmatizing,  they  modestly  retreat 
from  their  bold  positions,  and  say,  No.  we  appeal  to  that 


70  SERMONS. 

■witness  which  is  in  every  man's  heart.  But  the  vast  major- 
ity of  men  say,  We  have  no  such  witness  in  our  hearts.  Ah, 
yes,  gentlemen,  you  have,  if  you  only  knew  yourselves  as 
well  as  we  know  you. 

In  one  breath  they  tell  you  that  all  men  have  the  absolute 
religion ;  then,  in  the  next,  they  show  that  only  a  little  coterie 
in  England,  Germany,  and  America,  have  it.  They  ridicule 
the  old  doctrines  of  election  and  regeneration;  and  then  Mr, 
Newman  tells  you  that,  by  a  mysterious  new  birth,  these 
elect,  these  regenerated  few,  have  been  enabled  to  get  at  the 
real,  genuine,  absolute  religion,  without  any  fragments  of 
Fetichism  or  orthodoxy  clinging  to  it. 

They  inform  you  that  they  know  all  about  it,  how  God 
made  man.  They  were  not  there,  to  be  sure,  at  the  precise 
day  on  which  Adam  was  created,  nor  do  they  know  anybody 
that  was,  nor  are  they  fond  of  dogmatizing.  Yet  they  know 
that  man  is  now  just  as  God  made  him  at  the  beginning. 
But  you  have  not  gone  two  pages  before  the  poor  slave- 
holders, and  upholders  of  the  fugitive  slave  law,  and  what 
not,  are  rather  the  devil's  fabric  than  God's. 

They  are  great  enemies  of  a  book-revelation,  and  of 
creeds.  They  remind  me  of  a  man  of  whom  I  once  heard, 
who  wrote  a  book,  the  first  section  of  which  went  to  show 
that  language  could  not  convey  ideas  nor  truth.  Why,  then, 
write  a  book  ?  common  sense  Avould  ask.  And  so,  now,  if 
the  Bible  cannot  teach  the  absolute  religion  because  it  is  a 
book,  how  can  a  book  entitled  Discourses  on  Keligion  do  it  ? 

It  is  no  proof  of  a  weak  intellect  that  it  cannot  make  a 


THE   MIRACLES.  71 

religion  that  will  bear  the  scrutiny  of  reason;  for  God, 
alone,  can  do  that.  But  it  is  an  evidence  of  God's  kindness 
to  men,  that  he  does  not  allow  any  being  to  invent  a  religion 
that  reason  cannot  discover  to  be  self-contradictory,  and  con- 
tradictory to  facts. 

There  is  tremendous  (juilt  and  peril  in  contradicting 
Christ.  —  Jesus  Christ  says:  "These  shall  go  away  into 
everlasting  punishment."  I  find  a  sermon,  purporting  to 
have  been  delivered  in  this  city,  which  says  :  "I  can  never 
believe  that  evil  is  a  finality  with  God." 

Jesus  Christ  says  to  his  disciples:  "Take,  eat,  this  bread 
is  my  body."  "  Go  ye  into  all  the  world  and  preach  the 
Gospel  to  every  creature,  baptizing  them  in  the  name  of  the 
Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost." 

This  book  says,  however:  "The  Sacraments  are  no  signs 
of  religion  to  me ;  they  are  dispensations  of  water,  of  wine, 
of  bread,  and  no  more." 

Jesus  Christ  says:  "He  that  believeth  and  is  baptized 
shall  be  saved,"  &c.  This  book  says:  "The  minister  of 
absolute  religion  is  to  hold  a  difierent  talk.  He  is  to  say, 
my  brethren,  hold  there !  —  Stop  your  appeasing  of  God  ! 
Wait  till  God  is  angry.  Stop  your  imputing  of  righteous- 
ness !  There  is  no  salvation  in  that.  Stop  your  outcry  of 
'believe,  believe,  believe  ! '  " 

Jesus  Christ  says :  "  I  am  the  vine,  ye  are  the  branches." 
This  book  says :  "The  minister  is  to  teach  man  to  save  himself 
by  his  character  and  his  life  ;  not  to  lean  on  another  arm." 
Jesus  Christ  says  to  the  dying  thief,  who  prayed  to  him 


72  SERMONS. 

for  salvation :  '•  This  day  shalt  thou  be  with  me  in  Paradise." 
This  book  says:  "  The  common  notion  of  the  value  of  a  little 
snivelling  and  whimpering  on  a  death-bed  is  too  dangerous, 
as  well  as  too  poor,  to  be  taught  for  science  in  the  midst  of 
the  nineteenth  century." 

Now,  if  Jesus  Christ  is  what  he  claimed  to  be,  here  are 
idle  words  to  be  answered  for ;  here  are  words  to  ruin  the 
souls  of  them  that  believe  in  them,  because  they  are  more 
palatable  than  those  of  Christ. 


Y. 

CHRIST  A  PREACHER. 


"Nefitr  man  gpafet  liftc  t^is  man."  — John   7:   46. 

How  much  it  is  to  be  regretted  that  man  has  not  retained 
a  healthful  imagination,  and  sensibility  to  moral  beauty  ! 
The  name  of  Jesus  should  be  to  us  the  breaking  of  morning 
on  the  night  of  our  common  thoughts,  our  sorrows,  and  our 
cares  ;  of  our  earthly  passions  and  desires. 

Let  us,  brethren,  lift  up  our  hearts  unto  God  who  giveth 
light  and  life,  that  we  may  now  enter  into  the  scene  brought 
before  us  by  these  words. 

Our  Lord's  ministry  was  now  nearly  completed  ;  the  effects 
of  his  example  and  preaching  were  manifesting  themselves  so 
plainly  and  universally,  that  the  Sanhedrim  had  become  des- 
perate. The  prey  was  about  to  slip  from  their  grasp,  and 
they  must  either  lose  their  position  and  possessions,  or  silence 
that  preacher.  They  accordingly  sent  their  officers  to  appre- 
hend him.  These  men  were  probably  accustomed  to  execute 
such  orders ;  and  not  only  were  selected  because  naturally 
possessed  of  more  firmness  than  sensibility,  but  also  rendered 
7 


74  SERMONS. 

the  more  insensible  by  having  practised  the  duties  of  their 
office.  Like  other  Jews,  they  had  heard  much  preaching  by 
their  Rabbis,  and  therefore  expected  to  find  a  ranter,  coming 
utterly  short  of  them  in  dignity  and  solemnity.  The  idea 
they  had,  on  leaving  the  presence  of  their  superiors,  to 
go  forth  and  execute  their  orders,  must  probably  have  been, 
that  the  apprehension  of  a  fanatical  preacher,  disturbing  the 
public  peace,  would  be  an  easy  task,  and  rather  a  pastime. 
So  they  may  have  gone  jocularly  on  from  street  to  street, 
until  they  had  come  to  the  immense  multitudes  gathered  in 
and  around  the  temple  celebrating  the  feast  of  tabernacles  ; 
and  although  the  crowd  spreads  out  in  every  street  far 
beyond  the  outer  walls  of  the  temple,  yet  it  is  not  difficult  to 
find  the  preacher.  The  chief  interest  of  that  multitude  seems 
to  radiate  from  the  vast  circumference  to  him  as  its  centre. 
The  priests  and  the  altars  are  losing  their  hold  on  the  heart 
of  Israel.  A  mysterious  power  draws  it  in  another  direction. 
They  press  -through  the  throng,  and  approach  the  hallowed 
spot.  But  what  checks  their  rude  steps  ?  why  do  they  not 
advance  to  seize  their  prey,  please  their  masters,  and  secure 
an  extra  fee  ?  They  are  confounded,  not  with  fear,  but  with 
amazement,  reverence,  and  an  unwonted  human  sympathy. 
There  he  stands,  incarnate  Deity  !  No  fierceness  of  a 
mob-leader  is  seen  in  him,  no  cringing  to  formidable  enemies, 
no  caressing  the  populace.  He  stands  alone  and  lofty  in  the 
meek  dignity  of  a  descended  God.  And  they  might  first 
have  said,  "  Never  man  looked  like  that  man."  But  they 
felt  the  attractive  force  of  the  very  power  that  disarmed  them. 


CHRIST   A   PREACHER.  75 

There  was  a  presence  that  annihilated  the  authority  of  San- 
hedrims ;  there  was  a  manifest  virtue  that  acquitted  him  at 
the  bar  of  their  consciences.  And  before  it  they  laid  down 
their  vile  commission,  and  joined  the  devout  and  admiring 
hearers.  This  added  to  their  wonder  and  reverence.  Surely 
Moses  never  spake  more  according  to  the  mind  of  God. 
Elijah,  Isaiah,  Jeremiah,  Ezekiel,  never  spake  with  more 
authority  than  this  man.  He  is  a  prophet  of  the  living  God ; 
and  surely  the  elders  of  Israel  never  intended  to  arrest  such 
a  man ;  and  they  returned,  not  with  a  prisoner,  but  with  a 
nolle- jirosequi,  a  report  that  there  was  no  ground  of  arrest. 
"  Never  man  spake  like  this  man." 

We  are  favored  with  more  light  than  those  men.  And 
while  we  take  their  verdict  for  our  theme,  Ave  may  contem- 
plate it  in  a  profounder  sense  than  they  attached  to  it.  It 
contains  a  contrast  which  we  would  carry  out,  and  say  it 
still,  after  eighteen  centuries  :  "  Never  man  spake  like  him." 
It  will  not  be  needful  that  we  apply  the  contrast  to  his  apos- 
tles and  other  servants,  except  indirectly.  We  will  take  the 
classes  who  have  attempted  to  lead  and  instruct  mankind, 
without  Christ,  or  in  opposition  to  him.  We  will  first  take 
the  contrast  these  constables  had  in  mind,  and  compare  Christ 
as  a  teacher  with 

I.  The  Scribes  and  Pharisees,  whether  ancient  or 
modern. 

1.  Ill  the  spirituality  of  his  instructions.  —  The  Jewish 
teachers  and  their  modern  imitators  are  distinguished  promi- 
nently by  their  degrading  conceptions  of  religion,  morality. 


76  SEKMONS. 

and  worship.  When  the  scribe  opened  the  Scriptures,  he 
saw  there  a  vast  cumbrous  book  of  court-etiquette ;  a  descrip- 
tion of  the  dead  formalities  and  proprieties  which  man  must 
observe  in  approaching  God.  He  knew  nothing  of  the 
heart ;  the  body  was  with  him  supreme.  Judgment  and 
mercy  passed  for  trifles  ;  while  genuflexions,  ablutions,  pay- 
ing tithes,  circumcision,  and  holy  sprinklings  were  supreme. 
The  whole  force  of  Rabbinic  learning  was  expended  in  split- 
ting hairs  of  casuistry,  and  in  settling  the  form  of  a  cere- 
mony ;  and  the  whole  power  of  Rabbinic  eloquence  was 
exhausted  in  enforcing  its  dead  dogmas  on  the  human  con- 
science. But  what  a  teacher  is  this  !  He  proclaims  to  man 
that  the  broken  heart  deploring  its  sins  is  the  holocaust  God 
accepts  ;  it  is  not  Gerizim,  Moriah,  nor  the  Seven  Hills,  but 
the  place  where  a  believing  heart  is  praying,  where  the  most 
acceptable  w^orship  is  to  be  performed.  It  is  not  the  washing 
of  tables  nor  hands,  that  can  take  the  place  of  a  pure  heart. 
He  proclaims  that  duty,  morality,  piety,  goodness,  greatness, 
all  consist  in  love  to  God  and  man.  When  he  ooens  the 
Old  Testament,  every  page  glows  with  heavenly  light,  every 
line  is  instinct  with  life.  God  had  ordained  an  outward  ser- 
vice. But  from  the  beginning  he  had  sought  for  spiritual 
worship.  Here  the  Lord  Jesus  stood  entirely  apart  from  the 
teachers  of  the  church  in  his  day.  He  had  learned  of  none 
of  them ;  he  had  derived  his  authority,  his  knowledge  and 
power,  from  none  of  them. 

He  differed  from  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees 

2.    Li  the  dignity  of  his  instructions.  —  The  teaching 


CHRIST   A   PREACHER.  7T 

of  the  Rabbis  was  gravely  puerile.  Look  at  their  casuistry, 
and  that  of  their  successors,  which  you  may  find  in  the  theo- 
logical standard  works,  and  the  guides  to  confessors,  in  the 
Roman  church.  There  is  a  disgusting  detail  of  analysis  and 
distinction,  to  which  no  better  name  can  be  given  than  that 
of  quiddling.  Pass  from  all  this  to  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount,  and  you  have  passed  from  a  prison  to  the  grand 
scenery  and  the  invigorating  atmosphere  of  a  mountain. 
Surely  never  Jew  or  Gentile  had  taught  as  this  Teacher  that 
day  taught,  on  that  appropriate  elevation.  Contrast  their 
conceptions  of  Jehovah  with  his.  Those  teachers  had  in- 
vested him  with  more  power  than  the  Jupiter  of  Paganism 
possessed.  But  he  was  a  partial  patron  of  their  nation, 
irrespective  of  their  character  and  conduct;  partaking  of 
their  national  pride  and  revenge  ;  relishing  their  flatter- 
inor  ceremonies,  and  satisfied  with  their  external  homage. 
But  Jesus  stood  in  the  midst  of  them,  proclaiming  the  holi- 
ness of  God,  the  certainty  of  the  temporal  destruction  of 
Israel,  the  devastation  of  the  temple,  the  dispersion  of  the 
nation,  the  introduction  of  the  Gentiles  to  their  privileges ; 
yea,  and  the  personal  and  eternal  damnation  of  the  Jews, 
unless  they  repented,  and  returned  to  the  way  of  obedience. 
He  revealed  the  awful  unity  of  God's  requirements,  the 
rio-or  of  his  justice,  and,  at  the  same  time,  the  magnitude  of 
his  mercy.  He  unveiled  the  sublime  mystery  of  his  unity 
with  the  Father,  and  his  distinctness  from  him.  He  revealed 
the  mystery  of  the  person  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  permanent, 
indwelling  Deity  in  the  church. 
7* 


78  SERMONS. 

Their  views  of  the  Messiah  were  low  and  earthly.  He 
came  announcing  himself  as  the  Messiah,  so  great  that  no 
earthly  titles,  or  alliances,  or  palaces,  or  royal  vestments, 
could  add  to  his  greatness.  His  was  the  greatness  of  per- 
son, of  character,  of  office,  of  beneficence.  His  foe  was  not 
Caesar,  but  the  mightier  prince  of  a  mightier  empire.  His 
battles  were  not  carnal,  but  spiritual.  His  victories  were 
conquests  of  the  heart.  His  weapons  were  Truth  and  Good- 
ness. His  deliverance  was,  from  the  power  and  curse  of  sin. 
His  nation  was  the  human  race.  His  success  was  the  union 
of  the  human  family  under  his  paternal  sceptre.  The  salva- 
tion they  proclaimed  was  political  and  temporary.  He  pro- 
claimed himself  Lord  of  Hades,  the  deliverer  from  hell,  the 
dispenser  of  eternal  life.  Surely  no  man  ever  spake  like 
him.  Moses  promised  Canaan  to  Israel  in  the  wilderness, 
and  his  position  and  teachings  w^ei-e  sublime.  But  what 
could  equal  the  grandeur  of  one  standing  in  this  wilderness 
of  sin,  and  pointing  to  himself  as  the  Saviour  of  the  soul  ? 
Jonah  was  sublime  in  his  solitary  walks  through  the  streets 
of  Nineveh,  revealing  a  holy  and  righteous  God  to  the  poor 
heathen ;  but  a  greater  than  Jonah  is  here.  Solomon  was  a 
magnificent  prince,  and  the  Queen  of  Sheba  was  astonished 
at  his  wisdom ;  but  a  greater  than  Solomon  is  here.  Com- 
pare, too,  the  low  and  limited  views  of  Judaism  which  the 
Scribes  entertained,  with  the  sublime  conceptions  Christ 
revealed  of  its  true  genius  and  design.  Mark  the  delicacy 
of  his  position.  He  was  a  Jew.  He  was  to  fulfil  all  right- 
eousness, —  to  sustain  the  law,  and  yet  to  prepare  the  way  to 


CHRIST   A    PREACHER.  79 

abrogate  it  as  a  form,  -while  its  spirit  should  take  on  the 
broad,  catholic  form  of  the  New  Testament.  It  has  been 
well  remarked  that  "  the  Pharisees  were  the  Jesuits  of  Juda- 
ism, having  all  their  craft,  and  all  their  superstition.  In 
ritual,  and  priestly  assumption,  and  tyranny,  they  were  to 
Mosaic  Judaism  what  Ultramontanism  is  to  primitive  Chris- 
tianity. They  set  aside  the  weightiest  matter  of  the  law  for 
the  minutest  interest  of  their  hierarchy.  They  disregarded 
justice  and  mercy,  and  made  broad  their  phylacteries.  They 
devoured  widows'  houses,  and,  for  a  pretence,  made  long 
prayers.  Like  the  disciples  of  Loyola,  they  possessed  them- 
selves of  the  secret  springs  of  political  and  social  mechanism. 
They  were  a  social  power,  secret,  compact,  terrible ;  full  of 
intrigue,  turbulence,  bloodshed ;  the  most  active  when  they 
were  the  least  seen ;  the  best  servants  of  the  devil  when  the 
most  saintly.  They  were  found  '  in  widows'  houses,'  and  at 
Pilate's  ear ;  praying  in  the  holy  places,  and  instigating  a 
mob  to  violence ;  and  they  had  loaded  the  generous  laws  of 
Moses  with  innumerable  and  intolerable  traditions  and  restric- 
tions." Apart,  above,  and  against  this  formidable  associa- 
tion, armed  with  all  the  prestige  of  position,  all  the  authority 
of  office,  and  the  power  of  their  ill-earned  wealth,  stood 
the  meek  and  lowly  Jesus;  and  truly  no  man  ever  spake 
like  him  when  he  unveiled  their  hypocrisy,  tore  off  the 
gloss  of  their  commentaries,  traditions,  and  enactments; 
revealing  the  law  of  Moses,  pure,  sublime,  benevolent, 
and  typical  of  better  things  to  come.  His  great  task  was, 
to  recover  the  Mosaic  law  from  the  mass  of  rubbish  that 


80  SERMONS. 

lay  upon  it,  —  to  reenact  it,  —  to  bring  men  to  repentance 
by  the  power  of  its  spiritual  requirements.  And  yet  he 
must  prepare  the  way  for  the  great  change  which  his  death 
should  accomplish.  No  man  or  angel  ever  before  or  since 
has  stood  in  such  a  position.  None  ever  had  such  a  task  to 
perform.  None  ever  spoke  like  him.  Every  word  flashed 
back  light  on  prophecy,  history,  ceremony,  and  command,  or 
bore  the  hearer  onward  amid  the  grandest  scenes  of  coming 
time  and  eternity.  He  showed,  in  all  the  bloody  sacrifices, 
the  one  glorious  offering  of  the  Lamb  of  God  for  the  sin  of 
the  world.  The  manna,  the  brazen  serpent,  pointed  Jew  and 
Gentile  to  the  grandest  of  all  truths  for  man  :  that  he  who 
furnishes  medicine  for  the  sick,  and  bread  for  human  nourish- 
ment, has  provided  for  the  healing  and  nourishment  of  the 
soul  to  eternal  life. 

This  comparison  might  be  carried  much  further,  to  show 
the  contrast  between  their  teaching  and  his,  in  regard  to  the 
church  of  the  past  and  of  the  future,  —  their  anticipations 
of  the  progress  of  religion,  and  his.  We  might  demand  if 
ever  man  opened  to  human  view,  in  a  few  words,  so  simple 
and  sublime  a  view  of  the  judgment  day  as  is  recorded  by 
Matthew.  Into  whose  mind  had  it  ever  before  entered,  or 
who  ever  uttered  it,  that  the  despised  Nazarene  was  to  utter 
his  voice,  and  call  up  the  dead  of  every  nation  and  genera- 
tion, to  be  judged  at  his  bar  ?  Surely,  if  we  had  heard  him, 
we  should  have  said,  never  man  spake  like  this  man. 

And  if  we  should  make  any  other  contrast  between  his 
preaching  and  that  of  the  Jewish  preachers,  it  would  be  in 


CHRIST   A   PREACHER,  81 

regard  to  tlie  genial  glow  of  sincerity,  sympathy,  zeal, 
and  magnanimity,  of  the  one,  and  the  cold,  dry,  austere 
dogmatism  of  the  other.  Suffice  it  here  to  say,  no  preacher 
of  the  Pharisaic  school,  Jewish  or  Roman,  ever  originated  an 
allegory  like  the  story  of  the  Prodigal  Son. 

Let  us  now  bring  on  the  stage 

II.  The  Poets.  —  Many,  perhaps  the  majority,  of  them 
would  utterly  shrink  from  such  a  comparison,  and  complain 
of  it  as  unfair.  To  those  who  borrow  their  light  from  the 
Sun  of  Righteousness,  it  would  be  ungenerous  to  institute 
such  a  contrast.  To  those,  also,  who  simply  seek  to  indulge 
their  own  fancy  in  composition,  or  to  recreate  the  wearied 
mind,  and  smooth  one  little  path  for  some  toiling  traveller,  it 
would  be  unfair  to  bring  them  to  such  a  standard.  As  well 
refuse  to  burn  the  humble  taper  in  the  chamber  of  the  sick, 
because  the  sun  rose  in  the  morning,  as  reject  these  humble 
contributions  to  human  happiness,  because  Christ  has  revealed 
God,  eternity,  and  salvation,  to  mankind.  But  there  are 
admirers  of  poetry  who  have  a  reply  to  this  appeal  of  the 
officers ;  and  when  asked,  "  Who  ever  spake  like  this  man?  " 
their  hearts  reply,  severally,  Byron,  Shakspeare,  Virgil, 
Horace,  Homer.  Our  reply  to  this  response  of  theirs  would 
embrace  several  points. 

The  teaching  of  your  favorites  has  no  concrete  reality^ 
nor  anything  to  meet  the  deepest  wants  of  the  soul.  —  If 
they  teach  history,  then  they  are  not  poets  in  the  higher 
sense ;  and  there  are  always  better  prose  historians  than 
they.     So  far  as  they  are  abstract  and  philosophic,  I  will 


82  SERMONS. 

refer  to  them  under  that  class.  They  then  draw  on  fancy 
for. their  statements  of  the  past  or  the  future.  They  add 
nothino;  to  the  stock  of  human  information,  the  real  sum  of 
knowledge.  As  pure  poetry  it  is  concretely  unreal.  It 
may  be  abstractly  true.  But  I  am  just  now  judging  only 
by  one  standard.  When  you  have  heard  a  poet,  you  learn 
from  him  nothing  of  the  past  that  does  not  belong  to  history, 
nothing  of  the  present  that  belongs  to  poetry  in  particular, 
nothing  of  the  future  that  is  not  taken  from  Christ  or  his 
prophetic  pupils.  Pure  poetry  has  its  place  in  human  culti- 
vation and  in  civilized  life.  But  it  is  simply  the  production 
of  a  more  active  imagination,  and  a  livelier  or  profounder 
sensibility  than  ordinary,  sympathizing  with  man  and  nature. 
But  have  the  poets  advanced  mankind  in  knowledge? 
Which  of  them  ?  —  Homer  ?  Yes ;  we  know  some  things 
from  him  as  a  historian.  But  what  has  he  taught  to  make 
us  holier  ?  Has  he  lifted  the  veil  that  hides  from  us  the 
Eternal  One,  the  infinite  I  Am  ?  Has  he  taught  us  why  we 
suffer,  how  we  may  be  forgiven  ?  Has  he  lifted,  the  veil  from 
the  tomb  ?  Has  he  responded  to  the  deepest,  most  earnest  in- 
quiries of  the  human  soul,  as  it  struggles  to  pierce  the  dense 
black  cloud  of  sin  that  shuts  it  in,  and  hides  God,  hides  the 
future,  hides  the  path  of  life  ?  No,  he  has  not  a  line  that 
is  not  midnight  darkness  compared  to  this  one  beam  of  light, 
"  God  is  a  spirit,  and  they  who  Avorship  him  must  worship 
him  in  spirit  and  in  truth ;  "  a  sentence  on  which  turns  the 
whole  religious  history  of  a  man,  a  nation,  controlling  all  its 
ecclesiastical  architecture,  its  sacerdotal  orders,  its  religious 


CHRIST    A    PREACHER.  83 

observances,  its  sacred  days,  and  its  modes  of  -worship.  It 
is  the  key-note  of  all  iconoclasm,  dashing  to  the  earth  every 
idol  of  the  million  heathen  temples.  Has  Homer  one  glimpse 
of  the  spirit-world  -which  makes  us  feel  the  pulse  of  sympathy 
beating  quick  and  tender  bet-^veen  earth  and  heaven,  as  does 
this  declaration,  "there  is  joy  in  heaven,  before  the  angels 
of  God,  over  one  sinner  that  repenteth"?  Has  the  range 
of  uninspired  poetry  one  sentence  that  has  been  a  resting- 
place  for  more  Aveary  pilgrim-feet,  a  pillo-w  to  more  aching 
heads,  a  balm  to  more  aching  breasts,  than  this  "come  unto 
me,  ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy  laden,  and  I  -will  give  you 
rest"?  No;  Christ  -was  a  doctrinal,  not  a  sentimental 
preacher.  He  gave  indeed  a  simple  rhythm  to  his  sentences, 
for  truth  loves  the  measures  of  poetry.  He  gave  poetic 
aspects  of  life  and  nature.  He  exercised  the  imagination. 
But  he  gave  substantial  facts,  concrete  realities,  rather  than 
abstract  conceptions ;  truth  as  addressed  to  the  conscience  and 
the  profoundest  sensibilities  of  the  soul,  adapted  to  meet  its 
most  urgent  and  most  enduring  necessities.  Never  poet  spake 
like  this  man.  0,  -what  eloquence ;  Avhat  subhmity  of  reve- 
lation ;  -what  pathos  of  appeal ;  -what  terror  of  denunciation : 
what  utterances  of  conscious  deity,  of  divine  condescension, 
of  human  humility ;  -what  consciousness  of  unity  with  the 
Father ;  what  exulting  avowals  of  union  with  his  brethren  ! 
Fade,  fade,  ye  flickering  tapers;  stars,  go  out  in  light;  the 
Sun  of  Righteousness  is  risen  in  Time's  deep  midnight  hour ! 
Virgil  flattered  princes.  Homer  celebrated  human  heroes 
and  divine  villains.     Horace  enjoyed  a  good  joke,  good  wine, 


84  SERMONS. 

and  jovial  society  of  well-to-do  practical  men  of  common 
sense,  with  no  extra  scruples  about  a  hereafter.  Juvenal 
was  keen,  honest,  useful  in  clearing  some  of  the  filth  out  of 
the  Augean  stable.  And  I  speak  here  to  the  disparagement 
of  none  of  them.  Only  I  particularize  their  class  under  the 
general  affirmation,  never  man  spake  like  this  man.  We 
turn  now  to  another  class  of  teachers,  to  many  of  whom 
mankind  have  listened  with  great  deference.     I  mean 

III.  The  Philosophers.  —  Here  again  I  intend  not  to 
disparage  the  labors,  attainments,  and  beneficial  influences,  of 
this  class  of  men ;  but,  admitting  all  that  is  true  concerning 
them,  then  to  affirm  that  they  never  spake  like  the  Son  of 
God.  It  is  of  the  very  essence  of  philosophy  that  on  subjects 
of  supreme  importance  it  is 

1.  Conjectural.  —  The  philosopher  can  do  nothing  more 
than  conjecture  in  regard  to  divine  existence  and  religious 
truths.  But  in  that  department  we  must  have  sanction  and 
authority  absolutely  divine ;  that  is,  infallible  and  omnipotent. 
Christ  affirms  this ;  and  philosophy,  in  her  ablest  expounder, 
admits  it.  Christ  declares,  ' '  No  man  hath  seen  God,  at  any  time ; 
the  only  begotten  Son,  which  is  in  the  bosom  of  the  Father, 
he  hath  declared  him."  And  Socrates  affirms  it;  he  declared 
after  his  most  earnest  and  profound  reasoning,  that  he  could 
find  no  certainty  about  divine  and  eternal  things ;  if  we  are 
to  know  God,  he  must  descend  to  us,  for  we  cannot  ascend 
to  him. 

Behold,  then,  one  who  claims  for  himself  unity  with  the 
Father ;  to  have  been  with  the  Father  from  the  beginning, 


CHRIST  A   PREACHER.  85 

to  proclaim  the  truths  for  -which  the  wisest  and  best  had 
sighed  and  searched.  Socrates,  the  true  philosopher,  was 
modest,  and  put  philosophy  in  its  true  position.  So  far  as  it 
is  the  exercise  of  reason,  on  its  appropriate  subjects,  it  is 
conclusive,  and  of  great  value.  But  of  the  world  that  lies 
beyond  it  can  reveal  no  more  than  prattling  infancy.  Hear, 
then,  the  eternal  word  proclaim  the  Father,  the  immortality 
of  man,  the  judgment,  the  resurrection,  redemption.  "When 
he  comes  to  this  world,  benighted  and  bewildered,  to  teach 
his  creatures,  we  expect  to  see  a  totally  different  manner  from 
that  of  the  philosophers.  Opinions,  counsels,  conjectures, 
others  may  give ;  he  will  give  doctrines,  positive  statements 
of  truths  unknown,  undiscoverable  by  human  research.  He 
can  say,  "  I  and  my  Father  are  one ;  I  speak  nothing  with- 
out my  Father."  He  affirms,  and  seldom  resorts  to  logic; 
never,  I  believe,  except  when  proving  from  the  Scriptures, 
unless  we  consider  his  parables  a  form  of  logic.  He  always 
speaks  like  one  having  authority ;  and  not  as  the  scribes,  or 
Jewish  philosophers.  He  is  the  Amen ;  the  faithful  and  true 
witness,  who  testified  that  he  had  seen.  He  did  not  specu- 
late about  the  trinity,  but  he  affirmed  at  once  his  own  dis- 
tinctness from  the  Father  and  the  Spirit,  and  yet  the  divinity 
of  each.  He  did  not  speculate  about  Satan  and  the  apostate 
angels,  and  come  to  a  probable  result  that  they  exist ;  he 
affirmed  it.  He  did  not  reason  about  atonement,  regenera- 
tion, depravity,  eternal  damnation;  he  affirmed  them,  ex- 
plained them,  ur^ed  them.     And  he  differed  again 

2.    In  the  concrete  form  of  his  teachings  from  philoso- 
8 


86  SERMONS. 

j)hers.  —  Of  course  I  refer  now  not  to  philosophers  who  sit 
at  the  feet  of  Jesus.  They  dare  to  tell  us  of  a  living  and 
eternal  person ;  a  being  whose  spiritual  and  personal  exist- 
ence is  essentially  the  model  of  ours.  They  dare  to  speak 
of  deity  incarnate ;  God  and  man  in  Jesus.  How  boldly, 
how  sublimely,  you  may  see  in  Hugh  Miller.  He  terminates 
one  of  his  recent  geological  works  thus  :  ' '  There  has  been 
no  repetition  of  the  dynasty  of  the  fish,  of  the  reptile,  of  the 
mammal.  The  dynasty  of  the  future  is  to  have  glorified  man 
for  its  inhabitant ;  but  it  is  to  be  the  dynasty,  tlie  kingdom, 
not  of  glorified  man  made  in  the  image  of  God,  but  of  God 
himself  in  the  form  of  man.  In  the  doctrine  of  two  conjoined 
natures,  human  and  divine,  and  in  the  further  doctrine  that 
the  terminal  dynasty  is  to  be  peculiarly  the  dynasty  of  him 
in  whom  the  natures  are  united,  we  find  that  required  pro- 
gression beyond  which  progress  cannot  go.  We  find  the 
point  of  elevation  never  to  be  exceeded  meetly  coincident 
with  the  final  period  never  to  be  terminated,  —  the  infinite 
in  height  harmoniously  associated  with  the  eternal  in  dura- 
tion. Creation  and  the  Creator  meet  at  one  point,  and  in  one 
person.  The  long  ascending  line  from  dead  matter  to  man 
has  been  a  progress  Godwards ;  not  an  asymptotical  progress, 
but  destined  from  the  beginning  to  furnish  a  point  of  union, 
and  occupying  that  point  as  true  God  and  true  man,  as  cre- 
ator and  created,  we  recognize  the  adorable  Monarch  of  all 
the  future  !  " 

That  is  the  teaching  of  a  Christian  philosopher ;  of  one 
of  whom  Dr.  Buckland  said,  at  a  meeting  of  the  British 


CHRIST   A   PREACHER.  87 

Association,  he  had  never  been  so  much  astonished  in  his 
life  by  the  powers  of  any  man,  as  he  had  been  by  the  geo- 
logical descriptions  of  Mr.  Miller.  That  wonderful  man 
described  these  objects  with  a  facility  which  made  him 
ashamed  of  the  comparative  meagreness  and  poverty  of  his 
own  descriptions  in  the  "  Bridgewater  Treatise,"  which  had 
cost  him  hours  and  days  of  labor.  He  u-ould  give  his  left 
hand  to  possess  such  jmwers  of  description  as  this  matt  ; 
and,  if  it  pleased  Providence  to  spare  his  useful  life,  he,  if 
any  one,  would  certainly  render  science  attractive  and  popu- 
lar, and  do  equal  service  to  theology  and  geology. 

But  your  pagan  philosophers  can  talk  only  of  abstractions, 
such  as  Deity,  laws  of  nature,  moral  evil,  absolute  existence. 
These  are  very  good  words  in  their  place  ;  so  are  humanity, 
skill,  fraud.  But  they  are  all  abstract ;  and  if  you  should 
call  a  friend  of  yours  humanity,  you  would  deal  with  him  as 
these  philosophers  deal  with  God.  God  is  a  concrete,  an 
actual  personal  existence.  Christ  speaks  of  a  personal  God, 
a  personal  devil.  God,  he  says,  paints  the  lilies  ;  it  is  not 
laws  of  nature  that  do  it.  Abstract  teaching  has  its  place  ; 
but,  from  necessity,  it  is  not  practical ;  and  yet  a  teacher  in 
the  great  concerns  of  the  soul  is,  at  the  same  time,  a  physi- 
cian. To  reason  about  nosology  and  therapeutics  by  the  bed- 
side of  a  man  in  fever,  and  do  nothing  more,  is  as  cruel  as  it 
is  to  mock  at  disease.  Christ  was  a  practical  teacher.  In 
religion  we  need  to  know  what  to  believe ;  but  preeminently, 
what  to  do.  He  solved  the  one  great  problem  that  has 
agitated,  not  the  minds  of  men,  so  much  as  their  hearts  ;  not 


88  SERMONS. 

the  philosophers  alone,  but  the  millions  of  immortal  beings  that 
resorted  to  pagan  temples  and  Jewish  priests,  without  find- 
ing peace.  That  problem  is,  What  must  I  do  to  be  saved  ? 
He  based  morality  on  piety  ;  and  the  first  step  into  piety  is 
not  circuitous  and  remote,  but  a  simple  confidence  in  what  he 
is,  has  said,  and  has  done ;  "  this  is  the  work  of  God,  that 
ye  believe  on  him  whom  he  hath  sent."  This  is  too  brief  a 
consideration  of  so  important  a  point;  but  Ave  must  leave  it  to 
consider  one  more  class ; 

IV.  The  Pretenders  and  Impostors.  —  They  are  of 
many  grades,  and  various  shades.  But  they  all  illustrate 
the  glory  of  him  who  spake  as  never  man  spake.  They 
all  betray  their  true  character,  by  extravagance,  in  some  form. 
His  claim  was  the  loftiest  ever  set  up  on  this  earth.  It  was, 
at  the  same  time,  put  forth  under  circumstances  which  fully 
tested  its  genuineness.  He  always  spoke  of  himself  Every- 
thing in  his  teaching  concentrated  in  himself  He  made  all 
the  law  and  the  prophets  point  to  him.  Here  is  a  pretension 
that  none  but  God  can  maintain,  without  the  most  satanic 
arrogance,  pride,  and  blasphemy.  On  this  point  there  is  no 
middle  ground  to  be  taken.  Christ  is  either  God,  or  the 
chief  of  apostates  and  blasphemers.  He  claims  to  be  God, 
and  yet  to  be  man.  Joanna  Southcott  claimed  to  have  a 
commission  from  God.  Mohammed  pretended  he  was  Allah's 
chief  prophet.  Emmanuel  Swedenborg,  too,  claimed  to  be  a 
special  prophet,  and  the  chief  prophet ;  actually  setting  aside 
Christ  and  all  others.  But  Christ  claimed  to  be  true  and 
very  God,  the  Son  of  the  Father,  and  the  Son  of  a  virgin 


CHRIST  A   PREACHER.  89 

woman.  And  where  and  how  did  he  assert  these  wonderful 
pretensions  ?  Among  vigilant  enemies,  at  the  metropolis,  in 
the  temple,  among  the  Rabbis,  without  patronage  or  pres- 
tige, without  armies  or  princes  on  his  side.  He  had  thun- 
dered on  Sinai  in  former  days ;  and  the  mountain  trembled  as 
he  gave  forth  the  law.  But  now  he  does  not  "lift  up  his 
voice,  nor  break  a  bruised  reed."  Let  us  enter  the  crowd, 
and  follow  his  preaching  from  place  to  place,  and  see  whether 
he  is  a  pretender. 

1.  An  impostor  icill  chiefly  address  the  senses  and 
imaginations  of  his  folloirers.  —  But  while  the  Lord  Jesus 
is  constantly  crowned  with  a  halo  of  divine  glory,  it  is  a  glory 
manifested  mainly  to  the  cool  judgment  and  the  spiritual 
perception  of  the  intelligent  inquirer,  rather  than  the  vulgar 
sense  and  fevered  imagination.  Popes,  cardinals,  and  Roman 
and  pagan  priests,  are  constantly  working  on  the  senses  and 
imao-inations  of  their  deluded  followers.  Look  at  a  recent 
assemblage  of  Roman  bishops  in  Baltimore,  covered  with  tin- 
sel and  finery.  How  apart  is  Jesus  sitting  on  the  mount,  in 
his  plain  robe,  from  all  this  foolery  and  trickery  !  How  dif- 
ferent from  the  Pharisees,  too  !  No  phylactery,  no  texts  of 
scripture  sewed  on  the  garment ;  affected  dignity  and  sepa- 
rateness  from  men.  All  his  dignity  was  discovered  in  the 
awe  his  character  inspired  in  the  wicked,  and  the  admira- 
tion it  excited  in  the  good.  There  were  prodigies  accom- 
panymg  his  birth  and  his  mhiistry.  It  must  needs  be  so. 
God  could  not  tread  on  the  earth,  and  walk  among  demons 
and  diseases  ;  but  earth,  and  demons,  and  diseases,  must  give 
8* 


90  SERMONS. 

siorns  to  man  that  his  God  and  their  God  was  here.  There 
were  prodigies ;  but  they  caught  not  the  vulgar  eje  so 
strongly  as  they  convinced  the  serious  and  judicious.  Wise 
men  in  the  east,  Simeons  and  Annas  in  the  temple,  humble 
worshippers  in  the  hill  country,  saw  them.  But  vulgar 
Herods  and  vulgar  prelates,  and  the  great  hungry  mass,  saw 
them  not.  Prophets,  John  the  forerunner,  angels,  stars,  all 
combined  to  announce  him.  Even  Plato  has  described  him, 
as  if  inspiration  had  wandered  for  a  moment  to  Greece.  He 
spoke  of  an  inspired  teacher  that  should  come.  He  said  this 
teacher  must  be  poor,  and  void  of  all  qualifications  but  those 
of  virtue  alone.  Thus  one  of  the  prince  of  philosophers 
points  mankind,  not  to  a  philosopher  as  their  great  teacher, 
but  to  one  Avhose  preeminent  quality  was  his  goodness.  He 
said  that  a  wicked  world  would  not  bear  his  instructions  and 
reproofs  ;  and,  therefore,  within  three  or  four  years  after 
he  began  to  preach,  he  would  be  persecuted,  imprisoned, 
scourged,  and  at  last  be  put  to  death.  He  performed  mira- 
cles ;  but  always  checked  that  vulgar  enthusiasm  they  could 
so  readily  have  aroused.  Others  have  put  forth  all  their 
real  or  pretended  claims  to  admiration  and  confidence  as  fast 
and  as  far  as  possible.  His  exhibition  of  himself  is  marked 
with  an  unafiected  divine  reserve,  which  manifests  the  pur- 
pose of  planting  an  eternal  kingdom  in  the  understanding 
and  heart  of  man.  The  witnesses  of  his  miracles  are  for- 
bidden to  be  clamorous  in  announcing  them.  His  whole 
manner  shows  the  desire  of  a  calm  winninfj  of  men's  intelli- 
gent  confidence,  and  of  their  sympathy  and  gratitude  to  a 


CHRIST   A   PREACHER.  91 

suffering  benefactor.  He  combined  authority  with  gentleness, 
as  man  cannot  do.  He  combined  human  with  divine  authority. 
As  man,  he  spake  like  Elijah,  Noah,  Moses ;  with  the  awful 
majesty  and  severity  of  Ezekiel  he  uttered  on  Scribes  and 
Pharisees  denunciations  the  most  terrible.  Did  ever  the 
fiery  Ezekiel  or  the  rude  shepherd  of  Tekoa  speak  like  this 
man,  when  he  sat  at  the  Pharisee's  table  and  cried  out, 
"  Woe  unto  you.  Scribes  and  Pharisees,  hypocrites  !  for  ye 
are  as  graves  which  appear  not,  and  the  men  that  walk  over 
them  are  not  aware  of  them.  The  blood  of  all  the  prophets 
which  was  shed  from  the  foundation  of  the  world  shall  be 
required  of  this  generation."  Did  ever  the  tender  pathos 
of  Jeremiah  equal  his  when  he  wept  over  Jerusalem  ?  All 
the  beauty  and  power  of  the  prophetic  race  met  in  him  ;  so 
that  as  a  man  no  one  of  them  ever  spake  like  him.  But 
when  he  said,  "  I  am  the  Son  of  God;  before  Abraham 
was,  lam  !  "  then  he  spake  as  mere  men  could  not  speak. 
When  he  said,  "  I  am  the  bread  of  life ;  I  am  the  resur- 
rection and  the  life  ;  I  give  the  water  of  life ;  I  give  the 
weary  rest ;  I  am  Israel's  shepherd,  laying  down  my  life 
for  the  sheep,"  then  he  speaks  as  neither  man  nor  angel 
can  speak.  He  aimed  to  secure  boundless  love  to  himself;  all 
the  love  that  God  can  claim.  Here  all  comparison  and  even 
contrast  fails.  "  Alexander  and  I,"  exclaimed  Napoleon, 
"  have  set  up  the  empire  of  force ;  but  Jesus  Christ  established 
the  enduring  empire  of  love."  And  when  you  see  the  pure 
and  undying  power  of  his  words,  you  must  exclaim,  •'  Never 
man  spake  like  him."  They  converted  Saul  of  Tarsus ; 
they  converted   the  rude   Gauls  that  invaded  the  Roman 


92  SERMONS. 

empire.  They  made  the  Reformation ;  which  is  the  well- 
spring  of  modern  civilization.  They  have  created  modern 
society.  They  bind  the  hearts  of  men  to  law,  to  order,  to 
society,-  to  freedom,  to  truth,  to  man,  to  God.  They  are 
mightier  than  all  law,  than  all  philosophy,  than  all  religious 
theories,  than  armies,  than  princes,  popes,  or  devil.  They 
made  the  noblest  body  of  men  England  ever  saw.  They  made 
the  feeble  mightier  than  royal  tyrants.  They  convey  to  man's 
heart  the  omnipotence  that  rules  not  matter,  but  the  soul, — ■ 
the  omnipotence  of  divine  love.  If  these  are  not  the  words 
of  an  eternal,  almighty  being,  then  they  must  die ;  and  all 
that  is  built  on  them  must  perish.  But  they  are  the  words 
of  life  to  the  soul,  to  the  church,  to  the  nations.  Christ 
saw  the  glory  of  his  own  kingdom.  But  wdiat  quietness 
and  reserve  in  announcing  it !  Everything  is  said  to 
give  a  basis  to  an  intelligent  faith ;  nothing  to  create 
worldly  enthusiasm.  Impostors  resort  to  prejudices,  national 
or  religious.  Peter  the  Hermit  ranted  and  raved  ;  and  all 
Europe  was  moved  by  it,  because  he  aroused  a  worldly 
prejudice  against  the  Saracen,  and  a  fanatical  zeal  for  holy 
places.  How  easy  it  would  have  been,  when  that  multitude 
were  shouting  hosannas,  and  strewing  their  garments 
under  his  feet,  to  lift  the  trumpet  to  his  lips,  and  cry, 
"  To  arms  ;  rescue  the  desecrated  temple  of  Israel's  God  ; 
lift  Judah's  banner  over  the  Roman  eagle  !"  But  not  an 
appeal  to  passion  or  prejudice,  not  a  word  of  flattery,  does 
he  utter.  He  promises  the  cross  here,  and  heaven  here- 
after. He  wins  no  golden  opinions  by  proclaiming  indis- 
criminate salvation,  as  so  many  have  done  in  his  name.     He 


CHRIST   A   PREACHER.  •  93 

describes  no  sensuous  heaven,  like  Swedenborg's  ;  no  sensual 
heaven,  like  Mohammed's  ;  but  a  heaven  for  which  nothing 
qualifies  us,  without  purity  of  heart. 

How  precious  and  indispensable  a  study  are  the  four 
gospels  !  —  They  contain  the  earthly  history  of  this  wonder- 
ful being.  They  contain  a  few  of  the  wonderful  words  he 
uttered;  enough  to  complete  our  education  for  earth  and 
heaven.  These  words  will  bear  a  more  profound  investio-a- 
tion,  a  more  intense  meditation ;  they  will  last  us  longer 
they  will  do  us  infinitely  more  service,  than  all  the  poets, 
philosophers,  and  religious  teachers,  of  Adam's  race.  Study 
them.     Keep  them. 

We  see  why  the  whole  Neio  Testament  is  of  bindiiig 
authority.  —  One  of  Christ's  promises  was,  that  when  he 
had  done  the  great  work  of  atonement,  his  Spirit  should 
descend  on  his  disciples,  to  secure  a  completeness  to  the  rev- 
elation of  his  grace.  They  have  not  an  idea  of  which 
we  'tannot  find  the  germ  in  his  words.  But  the  expansion 
and  application  of  them  needed  his  infallible  Spirit  to  secure 
its  freedom  from  error. 

The  words  of  Christ  will  fix  our.  destiny.  —  If  we 
believe  them,  and  trust  him,  we  are  saved ;  if  we  believe 
them  not,  we  are  damned.  Other  books,  then,  we  may  read 
and  criticize.  To  the  Scriptures  we  must  bow  the  entire  soul, 
with  all  its  faculties.  We  shall  have  reached  the  highest 
degree  of  wisdom  and  of  taste,  when  we  shall  see  more  beauty 
and  glory,  shall  taste  more  sweetness,  and  feel  more  power, 
in  the  words  that  fell  from  his  lips,  than  in  any  and  all  other 
words. 


YI. 

JESUS,  THE    GREAT    MISSIONARY. 


"JTor,  tije  Son  of  iHan  is  comr  to  scrh  anti  to  sabr  tf)a.t  toijict)  fe^B 
lost."— Luke  19:  10. 

The  meaning  of  that  word  —  lost  —  is  the  separating-point 
from  which  diverge  the  most  important  sentiments  that  divide 
the  nominally  Christian  world.  It  affects  essentially  all  our 
religious  sentiments,  character,  and  career. 

The  fundamental  error  on  this  point  respects  two  aspects 
of  human  nature  —  man  as  the  subject  of  law ;  and  man  in 
his  capacity  for  a  spiritual  life. 

The  vieM's  of  man's  guilt  and  ill-desert  entertained  by 
some  are  comparatively  slight.  They  hold  in  abhorrence 
only  certain  crimes  against  civil  laws  and  social  order. 
They  excite  and  they  allow  no  deep  and  heart-breaking  con- 
victions for  spiritual  offences  ;  they  arouse  no  fears  of  endless 
punishment.  They  go  to  the  neglecter  of  religion,  and  per- 
suade him  to  become  more  attentive  to  religious  truths  and 
duties.  They  go  to  the  pagan,  and  urge  him  to  embrace  a 
purer  rite,  a  more  rational  theology.  Their  appeals  are  not 
made  to  the  conscience,  to  start  it  from  deep  slumbers,  and 


JESUS,  THE   GREAT   MISSIONARY.  95 

make  it  echo  the  thunders  of  coming  judgment.  And  when 
thej  find  it  awakened,  they  proclaim  to  it  no  peace-speaking 
sacrifice  for  sin ;  in  fact,  they  censure  this  very  alarm,  and 
attribute  it  to  ignorance  and  error.  Hence  they  find  nothing 
in  man's  prospects  to  enlist  deeply  their  own  solicitude. 
Hence  they  accord  not  with  us  in  our  endeavors  to  awaken  a 
slumbering  world  by  strong  appeals  to  make  it  hear  the 
voice  of  an  insulted  Deity,  of  an  outraged  Father,  of  the 
threatening  majesty  of  heaven. 

Thus  we  differ  from  them  in  our  estimate  of  the  extent 
and  purity  of  the  precepts  of  the  divine  law.  We  consider 
all  the  world  as  its  guilty  violators.  Equally  antipathetic 
are  our  views  of  man's  spiritual  character.  We  believe  that 
the  spiritual  image  of  God  is  effaced  from  the  human  soul ; 
man  is  fallen,  terribly,  desperately  fallen ;  the  gold  has  lost 
its  lustre.  All  men  are  wanderers  from  the  home  of  the 
soul,  the  bosom  of  God  ;  and  they  must  all  be  persuaded  to 
return.  The  malady  of  sin  lies  deeply  fixed  in  the  immortal 
part,  the  soul ;  and,  therefore,  intellectual  elevation  and 
social  refinement  do  not  remove  it,  and  have  no  tendency  to 
remove  it.  We  regard  the  Gospel  applied  by  God's  Spirit  as 
the  sole  remedy. 

Are  we  right  in  our  views?  We  are  willing  to  ask;  and 
wait  candidly  for  the  reply  to  these  questions :  How  must  I 
regard  human  nature,  myself,  and  my  fellow-men  ?  What 
is  my  highest  duty  with  respect  to  my  immortal  self,  and 
what  with  respect  to  my  fellow-men  ?  We  desire  truth,  and  • 
only  truth.     We  desire  to  see  things  now,  as  far  as  practica- 


96  SERMONS. 

ble,  as  we  shall  see  them,  when  the  illusions  of  time  shall 
have  given  place  to  the  light  of  eternity.  We  have  also  a 
desire  to  vindicate  our  course  to  an  intelligent  world ;  and,  if 
we  are  right,  to  become  in  our  turn  the  reprovers  of  its 
unbelieving  indifference. 

Brethren,  we  spend  this  tender  and  sacred  hour  in  con- 
templating, devoutly, 

Jesus,  the  great  Missionary, 

He  is  the  Judge  that  ends  the  strife.  He  is  the  Logos, 
the  Truth.  All  his  views  were  truth,  all  his  sentiments 
righteousness.  There  was,  even  in  his  finite  human  nature, 
no  error  in  theory,  no  misapprehension  of  facts,  no  exag- 
gerated impulse,  no  passion.  He  says  he  came  to  seek  and 
to  save  that  which  is  lost.  That  looks  to  us  like  calling 
himself  the  Great  Missionary,  the  Pattern  of  all  missionaries, 
the  Founder  of  our  missionary  institutions.  We  go  forth  to 
seek  and  to  save  that  which  is  lost ;  and  we  believe  that  our 
views  and  our  course  are  an  imitation  of  his,  and  an  obedience 
to  his  last  command,  "  Go  ye  into  all  the  world,  and  preach 
the  Gospel  to  every  creature." 

We  propose,  then,  to  examine  the  meaning  of  the  term 
"  lost,"  as  here  employed,  by  the  views  which  Jesus  enter- 
tained of  men,  and  by  his  conduct  toward  them.     By 

I.  His  estimate  of  man.  —  What  extent  of  meaning 
did  he  attach  to  the  term  "  lost  "  ? 

1.  He  regarded  man  as  a  depraved  and  apostate  spirit. 
—  Depraved  and  apostate  are  relative  terms,  referring  to  a 


JESUS,   THE   GREAT  MISSIONARY.  97 

certain  standard  of  perfection  and  excellence.  ]\Ian  was  made 
for  great  moral  purposes,  to  conform  to  a  type  of  perfect 
excellence,  to  attain  great  heights  of  moral  elevation.  Such 
was,  in  fact,  the  original,  native  tendency  of  his  constitution. 
And  there  is  his  dignity.  Now,  if  the  Saviour  considered 
the  present  state  of  man  as  conformed  to  that  type,  then  he 
did  not  regard  him  as  depraved  and  apostate.  And  happily 
we  are  left  to  no  conjectures  here.  His  ideas  of  holiness  are 
seen  in  his  own  character  and  actions  ;  of  which  it  might  be 
enough  here  to  say,  that  all  men  consider  them  perfect,  and 
yet  totally  unlike  those  of  any  other  man. 

Now,  whom  did  Jesus  regard  as  possessing  that  spiritual 
life  which  consists  in  rising  above  created  good,  to  live  in 
God,  to  feast  on  his  smile,  and  breathe  the  atmosphere  of  his 
love  ?  Was  it  the  poor  idolater  of  the  surrounding  pagan 
tribes  ?  Was  it  the  proud,  sanctimonious  Pharisee,  inwardly 
full  of  putrefaction  as  the  grave  ?  Was  it  the  infidel,  sensual 
Sadducee,  who  ridiculed  all  pretensions  to  spiritual  commu- 
nion ?  Was  it  the  crowd  who  followed  him,  not  for  truth  and 
spiritual  aliment,  but  for  bread  ?  Was  it  the  rich  young  ruler, 
so  amiable,  so  pure,  so  sincere,  who  went  away  sorrowful 
when  he  learned  that  God  and  Mammon  cannot  be  loved  and 
served  together  ?  Nay,  was  it  the  half-converted  Peter, 
whom  he  rebuked  as  fearing,  in  the  spirit  of  Satan,  the  sacri- 
fice of  self?  Or  John  and  James,  who  then  looked,  in  serving 
God,  for  the  honors  of  a  temporal  kingdom  ?  Was  it,  in  a 
word,  the  being,  of  whom  it  is  recorded,  that  Jesus  "knew 
9 


98  SERMONS. 

what  was  in  man,"  and  therefore  trusted  not  himself  to  him? 
0,  no  !  the  Son  of  God  walked  like  a  living  man  among  the 
tombs ;  and  the  silence  of  the  second  death  had  reigned 
there  forever,  if  his  own  omnipotent  voice  had  not  cried, 
"  Lazarus,  come  forth." 

We  have  another  exhibition  of  the  Saviour's  views  of  what 
constitutes  the  spiritual  life,  in  his  benedictions.  "Blessed 
are  the  poor  in  spirit,  the  pure  in  heart,  the  peace-makers, 
they  who  hunger  and  thirst  after  righteousness,  they  who 
love  him  more  than  parents  and  possessions ;  nay,  that  for- 
sake all  things,  even  life  itself,  for  his  sake  and  the  Gospel's." 
Now,  can  we  believe  that  he  considered  mankind  generally 
in  his  day,  or  that  he  considers  the  men  of  this  or  any  other 
period,  as  pure  in  heart,  peace-makers,  seeking  spiritual 
good  with  an  eagerness  like  that  of  the  corporeal  appetites  ; 
seeking  their  rest  in  God,  as  the  weary  body  seeks  its  couch  ; 
longing  for  God,  as  the  hunted  hart  pants  for  the  water- 
brook,  or  as  the  shipwrecked  mariner  longs  for  moi'ning 
light  ? 

Our  Saviour  again  presents  the  standard  of  human  excel- 
lence :  ' '  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy 
heart,  soul,  mind,  and  strength,  and  thy  neighbor  as  thyself" 
And  did  he  think  that  idolaters,  the  profane,  the  neglecters 
of  God's  service,  those  who  love  pleasure  more  than  God, 
the  proud,  tlie  covetous,  the  sensual — did  he  believe  that  they 
were  good,  when  compared  with  that  standard,  Thou  shalt  love 
God  supremely  and  perfectly  ?  Or  the  envious,  ambitious, 
fraudulent,  cruel,  tyrannical,  impure,  slanderers  ?     Do  they 


JESUS,    THE   GREAT   MISSIONARY.  99 

love  others  as  themselves  ?  Do  they  in  India,  Africa,  Europe, 
America  ?  Did  they  in  any  part  or  age  of  the  world  ?  Ask 
history.  It  is,  indeed,  too  generally  the  record  of  the  pow- 
erful. But  it  shows  what  all  would  do,  if  their  circumstances 
permitted.  And  have  the  powerful  been  good  ?  Have  their 
lives  been  examples  of  piety  ?  Have  their  energies  been 
consecrated  to  the  public  welfare  ?  There  has  been  a  Cyrus, 
an  Aristides,  a  Joshua,  a  St.  Louis,  an  Alfred.  But  they 
are  the  exceptions.  The  history  of  kingdoms  is  a  record  of 
wars  and  their  horrors,  of  frauds  and  oppressions.  What 
says  the  social  state  of  mankind  ?  Let  the  condition  of 
woman  speak  in  all  the  lands  where  human  nature  has  acted 
out  its  unobstructed  tendencies.  What  is  a  Turkish  wife, 
an  Indian  mother,  a  Hindoo  widow  ?  Come  home,  then,  to 
the  criminal  codes,  and  criminal  courts,  and  criminal  estab- 
lishments, of  Christian  America.  Leave  the  poetry  of  the 
parlor ;  lay  down  that  enchanting  book  which  enraptures  you 
with  its  visions  of  human  dignity  and  loveliness  ;  leave  that 
circle  of  refinement,  where  a  favored  few  have  separated 
themselves  from  the  vulgar,  to  enjoy  a  higher  intellectual 
and  social  life,  and  come  with  me  out  among  the  mass  of  this 
moving  population.  Let  us  go  into  the  lanes  and  alleys,  the 
almshouses,  the  hospitals,  the  prisons.  Shrink  not,  admirer 
of  human  nature  ;  this  is  man,  godlike  man.  Do  you  know 
that  thousands  of  the  very  children  of  this  city  are  liars, 
thieves,  impure,  profane  ?  And  what  of  the  pagan  world  ? 
0,  let  the  missionary  tell  you,  who,  having  gone  out  to  make 
common  interest  with  the  heathen,  has  examined  deeply  into 


100  SERMONS. 

his  character.  Here  are  nearly  five  hundred  millions ;  and 
yet  the  portrait  in  the  first  chapter  of  the  Epistle  to  the 
Romans  remains  fearfully  accurate.  And  does  this  being, 
man,  remam  as  he  was,  when,  coming  pure  and  perfect  from 
his  Creator's  hands,  he  was  pronounced  very  good  ?  And 
what  commission  have  diseases  and  death  in  this  fair  world  ? 
Did  God  make  man  for  this?  You  must  say.  Yes.  The 
Bible  says,  "By  sin,  death  entered  into  the  world;  and  so 
death  passed  upon  all  men,  for  that  all  have  sinned."  Each 
breath  you  draw  marks  the  death  of  three  of  your  race.  No 
place  is  so  exalted,  none  so  sacred,  that  disease  cannot  invade 
it.  No  tie  is  so  tender  and  so  precious  that  death  will  spare 
it.  And  when  you  visit  the  burial-yard,  ask  whether  man  is 
as  God  made  him  !  Was  he  made  to  be  the  slave  of  Satan, 
the  sport  of  tempests,  and  the  prey  of  death  ?  Was  he 
made  for  poverty  and  filth,  for  rags  and  woe  ?  0,  no  !  he  is 
fallen.  The  race  is  fallen.  If  we  want  another  test,  we 
have  it  in  the  pure  worship  which  Jesus  rendered  the  Father. 
Place  this  by  the  side  of  human  religions.  The  greater  part 
of  them  are  bloody,  and  seem  to  have  preserved  the  tradi- 
tion that  "without  shedding  of  blood  is  no  remission"  of 
sins.  But  they  are  also  impure,  and  thus  declare  the  deep 
apostasy  of  man,  Avhen  his  very  religions  remove  him  further 
from  God  and  holiness.  If  he  makes  a  Jupiter,  he  is  a 
monster  of  lust ;  a  Mars,  he  drives  his  chariot  over  the 
dying  ;  a  Mercury,  he  is  chief  of  robbers  ;  a  Juggernaut,  he 
feasts  on  mangled  human  limbs.  And  when  a  pure  revela- 
tion is  given  to  him  first  in  a  single  nation,  he  turns  back- 


JESUSj   THE   GREAT  MISSIONARY.  101 

ward  ever  to^Yards  idolatry ;  and  when  Christianity  is  given 
to  the  nations,  they  pervert  and  pervert  it,  until,  of  the  two 
hundred  and  fifty  millions  who  possess  it,  one  hundred  and 
ninety  millions  are  sunk  in  superstition  and  idolatry  little 
better  than  paganism  itself  The  moral  condition  of  France 
and  Spain  and  Italy,  the  history  of  religious  persecutions 
conducted  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  as  the  expan- 
sion of  his  Spirit  and  as  obedience  to  his  precepts,  appear  to 
us  sad  confirmations  of  the  truth  of  our  view,  that  man  is 
lost,  because  he  is  a  depraved  and  apostate  creature. 

We  learn  again  our  Saviour's  estimate  of  men,  in  the 
direct  expression  of  his  views.  Hear  him  declare  :  "  Broad 
is  the  road  that  leadeth  to  destruction,  and  many  go  in 
thereat,  while  narrow  is  the  way  that  leadeth  to  life,  and  few 
there  be  that  find  it.  If  any  man  will  come  after  me,  let 
him  "  —  what  ?  cultivate  his  good  heart  ?  — No,  "  deny  him- 
self" And  in  how  many  ways  does  he  describe  us  as  poor, 
and  miserable,  and  blind,  and  sick,  and  weary,  burdened,  im- 
prisoned, enslaved,  dead,  exposed  to  endless  destruction  !  If 
not  sick,  we  have  no  need  of  him  ;  if  not  sinners,  he  has  no 
message  to  us,  for  "  they  that  are  whole  need  not  a  phy- 
sician, but  they  that  are  sick."  In  his  conversation  with 
Nicodemus,  he  says  that  we  must  be  regenerated ;  and  that 
whoever  is  not,  cannot  be  saved.  And  mark  his  emphatic 
reason:  "That  which  is  born  of  the  flesh  is  flesh."  By 
our  natural  birth,  we  inherit  only  that  which  cannot  inherit 
heaven.  In  the  natural  birth  there  is  a  terrible  entailment 
of  degeneracy ;  and  so  there  needs  a  supernatural  birth,  a 
9* 


102  SERMONS. 

birth  of  the  Spirit.  With  all  this  in  view,  it  is  impossible 
to  believe  that  Jesus  regarded  man  as  a  refined,  noble,  ele- 
vated being,  —  as,  in  his  present  state,  the  type  of  perfection. 
He  never  says  it,  he  never  intimates  it.  We  look  in  vain 
for  passages  in  all  his  addresses,  as  well  as  in  all  the  writings 
of  his  disciples,  to  find  a  language  or  a  sentiment  like  that 
which  we  constantly  hear  about  the  purity,  and  nobleness, 
and  virtue,  of  man. 

2.  He  regarded  man^  also,  as  a  condemned  ci^iminal.  — 
According  to  his  saying  to  Nicodemus,  "  He  that  believeth 
not  is  condemned  already."  This  was  said  in  connection 
with  a  comparison  of  man's  moral  condition  to  the  physical 
state  of  the  Israelites  who  were  bitten  by  the  fiery  serpents. 
They,  says  the  Saviour,  were  to  be  healed  by  looking  at  the 
uplifted  symbol  of  God's  righteous  judgments  against  their 
sins.  So  we,  who  are  dying  beneath  the  righteous  anger  of 
God,  are  to  be  healed  by  believing  on  him  who  was  lifted  up 
for  us  on  the  accursed  tree.  But  whoever  believes  not 
remains  in  his  state  of  condemnation.  This  condemnation 
includes  two  facts,  —  that  of  being  left  in  transgression,  and 
that  of  being  subjected  to  punishment.  Jesus  did  regard 
men  as  sinners.  But  our  ideas  of  sin  are  superficial  and 
unimpressive ;  those  of  Jesus  were  deep  and  awful.  He 
traced  each  outward  sin  to  the  heart,  the  fountain  of  spiritual 
death ;  and  he  detected  sin  in  the  heart  where  no  outward 
sign  was  given  to  man ;  and  he  showed  that  it  were  better  to 
lose  limb  and  life,  reputation,  and  each  dear  interest  of  earth, 
rather  than  to  remain  a  sinner ;  for  sin  is  the  transgression 


JESUS,    THE   GREAT   MISSIONARY.  103 

of  the  law,  —  of  GocVs  holj  law.  And  not  only  haa  sin 
taken  possession  of  the  heart  of  man,  but,  without  supernat- 
ural aid,  that  possession  must  be  indefinitely  permanent. 
There  is  no  tendency  in  human  depravity  toward  self-recovery 
and  perfection.  In  all  that  we  have  known  of  it,  its  course 
is  ever  downward,  doAvnward,  and  forever  downward.  Sin 
never  yet  exhausted  itself  in  this  world,  nor  in  one  heart. 
Every  instance  of  recovery  from  its  dominion  is  called  by 
Jesus  the  conquest  of  a  strong  man  armed  by  a  stronger  than 
he.  And  while  man  is  thus  a  sinner,  a  transgressor  of  law, 
he  is  exposed  to  eternal  death.  If  the  warnings  and  expos- 
tulations of  Christ  do  not  teach  that,  then  they  are  to  us 
without  meaning.  '"Woe  unto  thee,  Chorazin,  and  to  thee, 
Bethsaida ;  for  it  shall  be  more  tolerable  for  Tyre  and  Sidon, 
Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  than  for  you  !  And  thou,  Caper- 
naum, exalted  to  heaven,  shalt  be  thrust  down  to  hell !  "What 
is  a  man  profited,  if  he  shall  gain  the  whole  world  and  lose 
his  own  soul  ?  or  what  shall  a  man  give  in  exchange  for  his 
soul  ?  There  shall  be  weeping,  and  wailing,  and  gnashing  of 
teeth."  Dives,  after  death,  "  lifted  up  his  eyes  m  hell,  being 
tormented."  The  net  and  fishes,  the  wise  and  foolish  vir- 
gins, the  wheat  and  tares,  the  separation  of  the  sheep  and 
goats,  the  treatment  of  the  unfaithful  steward,  all  tell  us 
what  he  believes  concerning  man's  eternal  destiny.  But 
nothing  he  uttered  is  more  terrible  than  the  declaration  that 
he  himself  will  say,  at  last,  to  the  wicked,  "Depart,  ye 
cursed,  into  everlasting  fire,  prepared  for  the  devil  and  his 
angels  !  "     Men  may  close  their  ears  and  shut  their  eyes  to 


104  SERMONS. 

this,  but  it  is  tlie  word  of  God.  Men  may  refuse  to  hear  it ; 
but  there  it  stands,  a  yet  unfulfilled  prophecy,  made,  if  pos- 
sible, more  certain  to  us  by  the  past  fulfilment  of  the  others 
which  surround  it.  Yes,  as  certain  as  was  the  destruction 
of  Babylon  and  Tyre,  the  deluge  of  water  and  the  flood  of 
fire  on  a  guilty  world,  —  as  certain  and  as  terrible  as  was 
the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  —  will  be  the  utterance  and 
execution  of  those  terrific  words.  And  as  idle  and  impotent 
will  be  the  scoffs  and  self- reasonings  of  this  day  as  were  those 
of  that  day  to  arrest  the  judgments  of  God.  But  who  can 
measure  their  meaning?  '■' Cursed !^^  It  is  terrible  to  be 
cursed  by  a  man,  a  wicked  man,  Avithout  cause ;  but  to 
be  cursed  by  a  Father,  —  by  a  being  who  never  errs  in  judg- 
ment; a  being  who  never  condemns  unjustly;  a  being  who 
suffered  to  save  us ;  a  being  who  has  long  expostulated  in 
view  of  this  very  judgment;  a  being  who  commands  the 
elements  of  the  universe  to  execute  his  purposes,  —  a  being 
who  ranks  his  glorious  perfections  to  flash  conviction  to  the 
centre  of  my  guilty  conscience  ! 

The  Son  of  Man  came  to  seek  and  to  save  that  which  is 
lost,  —  lost  to  God,  to  itself,  to  heaven,  to  hope,  to  purity,  and 
peace,  and  love,  —  lost  forever.  I  have  said  that  we  have 
more  exalted  views  of  man  than  either  the  sceptic  or  semi- 
sceptic  philosophy  contain.  We  have.  We  believe  in  his 
original  dignity ;  and  we  have  such  views  of  that,  that  man, 
in  his  present  state,  is  a  source  of  constant  distress  to  us ; 
and  we  desire  perpetually  to  be  proclaiming  in  his  hearing 
the  dignity  he  has  lost.     We  would  say  perpetually  to  him, 


JESUS,   THE   GREAT  MISSIONARY.  105 

as  we  should  to  the  degenerate  descendant  of  a  noble  family, 
still  wearing  their  name  and  title,  and  even  imitating  their 
lofty  bearing,  "Shame,  shame  on  thee!  Thy  name,  thy 
palace,  thy  lordly  mien,  are  all  thy  reproach  !  "  We  have 
such  exalted  views,  also,  of  the  perfectibility  of  man,  that  we 
cannot  endure  to  see  the  world  contenting  itself  with  any- 
thing short  of  the  image  of  God,  and  of  perfect  communion 
with  him.  Man  was  a  noble  being  when  .God  said  of  him, 
He  is  good.  But  he  aspired  too  high.  He  tried  to  become 
a  centre  of  light,  and  strength,  and  happiness,  to  himself, 
and  to  be  independent  of  God.  He  withdrew  from  God's 
spiritual  dominioUj  and  God  abandoned  his  spiritual  nature 
to  itself,  and  made  him,  in  his  wretchedness,  a  spectacle  to 
himself  and  to  the  universe.  The  brute  creation  have  fled 
him,  for  he  has  become  their  enemy.  The  very  earth  has 
felt  the  blighting  curse  that  lighted  on  him.  He  was  chased 
from  Eden's  happy  garden;  and  the  cherub  sentry,  with 
flaming  sword,  still  stands  to  bar  his  return.  Happy  Eden, 
scene  of  our  sweet  communion  with  God !  —  happy  Eden, 
witness  of  our  dignity  and  of  our  blessedness  !  —  thou  art 
lost  to  us,  and  we  to  thee  !  My  brethren,  we  are  strong  and 
high  believers  in  the  dignity  of  human  nature  ;  no  man 
shall  deprive  us  of  this  our  boasting ;  yet,  not  in  human 
nature  as  it  is,  but  as  it  was,  and  as,  by  grace,  it  may 
become.  But,  as  he  is,  man  is  lost.  And  we  want  to  sit 
down  by  the  side  of  every  brother  of  the  human  race,  and 
weep  with  him  for  the  crown  which  is  fallen  from  our  brow, 
the  home  and  the  heaven  which  we  have  lost.     We  want  to 


106  SERMONS. 

undo  the  deceiving  of  his  pride,  and  sigh  and  praj  with  him 
for  the  recovery  of  our  birthright. 

But  are  the  heathen,  who  have  not  our  light,  exposed  to 
perdition  ?  A  careless  world,  unwilling  to  make  thorough 
inquiry  into  the  condition  and  prospects  of  other  men,  com- 
jilacentlj  wraps  itself  in  the  mantle  of  an  imagined  charity, 
and  says,  "  The  mercy  of  God  will  never  consign  them  to 
endless  punishment,  when  they  have  sincerely  done  their 
best  according  to  the  light  they  enjoy."  And  there,  indeed, 
we  are  agreed  with  the  world ;  but  we  are  forced  to  stop 
there,  for  we  have  too  many  proofs  that  there  are  few  of 
them  who  will  have  that  plea.  We  find,  also,  a  part  of  the 
church,  though  unable  to  hope  much  for  the  pagan  world, 
yet  unwilling  to  adopt  the  harsh  conclusion  that  these  hun- 
dreds of  millions  are  rushing  blindly  to  endless  ruin,  and  pre- 
ferring to  rest  in  a  vague  hope  that  it  will  not  be  so,  rather 
than  to  search  the  Scriptures,  to  ascertain  if  God  has  given 
us  any  instruction  on  the  subject,  and  imposed  upon  us  any 
responsibility  in  the  matter.  Here  we  shall  fail  of  time  for 
a  solemn  topic.  The  sneers  of  the  world  terrify  us  not  in 
such  a  matter.  The  charge  of  cruelty  troubles  not  our  con- 
science, while  we  seek  not  to  make  their  destruction  a  fact, 
but  to  ascertain  whether  they  are  really  exposed  to  destruc- 
tion, in  order  that  we  may  aid  them  to  escape  it.  Indeed,  if 
we  Avere  not  distrustful  of  our  own  imperfect  motives,  we 
should  say  that  ours  is  the  true  charity,  which  welcomes 
evidence,  though  it  bring  us  to  the  results  of  distressing 
sympathy  and  of  self-denying  labor.     We  are  inclined  to 


JESUS,    THE    GREAT   MISSIONARY.  107 


suspect  the  depth  of  that  charity  which,  to  save  its  possessor 
pain,  and  spare  him  labor,  settles  a  great  principle  of  the 
divine  government,  a  great  future  fact,  not  by  examining 
God's  testimony,  but  by  appealing  to  a  mere  human  sensi- 
bility. If  we  consult  our  sympathies,  we  say,  "The  poor 
pagans  will  not  go  to  a  miserable  eternity,  but  where  they 
will  go  we  know  not."  But  when  we  ask,  "What  has  God 
asserted  on  this  subject?"  we  rise  from  the  answer  with 
heavy  hearts.  The  cry  of  the  perishing  then  swells  on  our 
ear,  —  "  Come  over  and  help  us  !  "  —  until  we  wish  for  a 
thousand  tongues  to  proclaim  to  them  the  way  of  life.  An 
outline  of  God's  testimony  is  all  we  can  here  present.  If 
we  examine  their  lives,  considered  in  the  light  of  a  disciplin- 
ary, probationary,  or  preparatory  state,  we  cannot  believe 
that  they  go  to  heaven.  They,  as  well  as  we,  must  be 
regenerated,  and  that  in  this  world.  But  we  find  them,  as 
in  Paul's  day,  infanticides,  liars,  adulterers,  covenant-break- 
ers, bestial,  sensual,  devilish,  murderers  of  mothers.  All 
this  seems  to  us  a  preparation,  not  for  heaven,  but  for  perdi- 
tion. "We  find  them,  too,  just  what  the  Canaanites  were, 
whom  God,  in  his  anger,  swept  from  the  earth,  but  surely 
not  into  heaven.  They  are  idolaters,  if  there  ever  were  any, 
and  God  declares  that  such  cannot  enter  the  kingdom  of 
heaven.  Again,  to  believe  that  they  are  in  the  way  to 
heaven  is  to  regard  all  the  apostles'  anxieties  and  labor  for 
their  salvation  as  unfounded,  extravagant,  and  useless.  And, 
again,  the  apostle  has  fully  reasoned  out  the  case  in  two 
places.     In  the  one  he  shows  that  they  sin  agamst  their  light 


108  SERMONS. 

as  we  do  against  ours ;  in  the  other,  this  is  his  missionary 
argument:  "For  whosoever  shall  call  on  the  name  of  the 
Lord  shall  be  saved.  But  how  shall  they  call  on  him  in 
whom  they  have  not  believed  ?  and  how  believe  in  him  of 
whom  they  have  not  heard  ?  and  how  hear  without  preach- 
ers ?  and  how  preach  unless  sent  ?  "  No,  my  brethren ;  it 
may  be  natural  sympathy,  or  it  may  be  distrust  of  God's 
testimony,  which  says,  "  Let  the  heathen  alone,"  but  it  is 
not  enlightened  piety.  Then  we  are  right  in  our  estimate 
of  man ;  then  we  should  not  be  dazzled  by  his  external 
appendages,  his  intellectual  and  social  traits ;  then  we  may 
say  to  the  higher  and  lower  Deistic  philosophies :  Your 
boast  is  vain  when  you  claim  the  exclusive  admiration  of 
human  nature,  for  we  have  higher  views  than  either  of  you. 
You  would  satisfy  man  with  certain  social  excellences,  cer- 
tain pagan  virtues,  certain  moral  sentiments,  which  have  little 
or  no  reference  to  God ;  but  we  believe  that  man  was  made 
to  live  in  God,  and  to  reflect  his  image  to  the  universe.  We 
hold,  too,  the  key  that  unlocks  the  deep  mystery  of  man's 
present  condition.  A  writer  of  your  school  says,  "  I  resem- 
ble, 0  Lord,  the  night-globe,  which,  in  the  obscure  path 
where  thy  finger  leads  it,  reflects  from  the  one  side  eternal 
light,  and,  on  the  other,  is  plunged  in  mortal  shades." 
"  How  abject,  how  august,"  says  one  of  another  school,  "  how 
complicate,  how  wonderful,  is  man  !  "  There  is  something 
great  in  man,  and  something  abject.  To  us  the  mystery  is 
solved.  Man  was  great,  good,  godlike,  in  his  powers  and  in 
his  character ;  but  he  is  fallen  in  character,  and,  in  that  fall, 


JESUS,   THE   GREAT  MISSIONARY.  109 

has  dragged  down  his  powers  and  native  sentiments ;  leaving, 
like  a  volcanic  rupture,  fragments  of  an  Eden,  scattered 
flowers  that  live  here  an  exotic  life. 

We  shall  now  consider,  much  more  briefly,  Jesus  as  our 
pattern, 

II.    In  his  treatment  of  men.  —  We  see  in  w  hat  light 
he  regarded  man ;  and  how  his  holy  soul  was  moved  with 
compassion  towards  him.     We   now  demand,  what  did  his 
compassion  lead  him  to  do  ?    If  to  make  great  sacrifices,  then 
his  views  of  man's  lost  estate  must  have  been  very  strong ; 
for,  although  it  may  be  love,  it  is  also  foolish  love  that  makes 
a  greater  sacrifice  and  efibrt  for  another  than  his  necessities 
demand.     But  when  a  being  of  infinite  intelligence  makes 
great  sacrifices,  greater  than  we  are  capable  of  estimating, 
the   evidence  is  complete,  that  the   misery  threatening  or 
actually  afiecting  those  whom  he  aids  is  equally  immeasur- 
able by  us.     On  the  subject  of  the  condescension  and  sacri- 
fices of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  language  of  the  Bible  is 
deep,  mystic,  suggestive.     He  had  a  glory  with  the  Father 
before  the  world  was,  but  he  left  it.     What  was  that  glory? 
we  inquire;  where  and  how  did  he  leave  it  in  becoming 
a  man  ?     The  veil  of  flesh  hides  it  from  our  sight.     He  was 
rich;  when,  where,  in  what?     The  clouds  and  darkness  of 
an  infinite  majesty  rest  around  his  person,  and  hide  from 
feeble  mortals  the  splendors  of  his  primitive  empire.     But 
he  became  poor.     He  took  on  him  or  was  invested  with  flesh. 
Then  he  was,  before  he  was  flesh ;  he  was  before  Abraham ; 
he  was  David's  root  and  lord,  before  he  was  his  ofispring  and 
10 


110  SERMONS. 

successor.  Mysterious  language !  He  took  on  him,  at  the 
very  instant  when  angels  were  adoring  him  as  the  only- 
begotten  of  the  Father,  the  form  of  a  servant ;  and  came  to 
be  despised  and  rejected,  to  hear  hisses  and  taunts  and  blas- 
phemies, instead  of  hosannas  and  hallelujahs.  He  exchanged 
heaven's  diadem  for  Judea's  thorns,  and  the  robes  of  light 
for  Pilate's  faded  and  discarded  garment;  he  forsook  the 
palace,  where  he  was  sovereign,  for  the  judgment-hall,  where 
he  was  bound,  and  buffeted,  and  scourged,  and  condemned. 
He  left  his  body-guard  of  holy  and  mighty  .angels,  to  be  at 
the  mercy  of  wicked  and  puny  mortals  who  hated  him.  He 
was  the  Lord  of  the  universe,  but  he  was  born  of  one  of  the 
lowliest  inhabitants  of  earth's  obscurest  corner.  He  was 
Prince  of  life,  but  he  tasted  death  for  every  man.  This  the 
Scriptures  call  his  sacrifice  for  man's  salvation.  But  they 
make  all  this  the  lightest  feature  of  the  image  of  his  cross. 
When  they  would  start  our  imaginations  on  the  path  to  his 
expiatory  sufferings,  they  drop  a  few  phrases,  which  are  not 
so  much  intended  to  instruct  as  to  impress  and  overAvhelm 
us  with  godly  fear  and  sympathy.  "My  soul  is  exceed- 
ing sorrowful;  even  unto  death."  What  made  him  sor- 
rowful —  so  sorrowful  ?  Nothing  in  all  that  was  external 
around  him  there;  nothing  that  the  Evangelists  mention. 
Again ;  in  the  garden  his  bodily  frame  passes  through 
an  unparalleled  excitement  of  agony ;  but  from  no  appar- 
ently adequate  cause.  To  attribute  it  to  his  fear  of  cruci- 
fixion, or  to  sorrow  for  his  cause  and  friends,  betrays  the 
most  entire  disrespect.     Again ;  his  agonizing  cry,  Why  hast 


JESUS,   THE   GREAT   MISSIONARY.  HI 

thou  forsaken  me?  permits  us  to  conjecture  that  there  is 
something  in  what  the  Son  of  God  endured  in  our  stead  and 
for  our  salvation,  -which  we  may  understand  only  when  our 
intellectual  powers  shall  be  expanded  by  the  light,  and  our 
moral  powers  purified  by  the  love  of  heaven.     And  when 
Jesus  said,  with  emphasis,  "  God  so  loved  the  world  as  to 
give  his  only  begotten  Son,"  we  understand  that  this  gift 
was  so  costly,  and  there  was  in  some  way  such  an  expenditure 
and  sacrifice,  that  it  not  only  showed  God's  love  to  man 
more  clearly  than  all  else  he  had  ever  said  or  done,  but  also 
that  it  shows  the  immensity  of  that  love.     And  so,  when  the 
apostle   reasons   for  the   encouragement  of  faith,  "If  God 
spared  not  his  own   Son,"    we   understand   that  this  not 
sparing,  and  freely  giving  up,  involve  something  which  we 
are   now  incapable  of  comprehending,   but  by  which   God 
designs  to  affect  our  hearts  and  form  our  characters  more 
powerfully  than  by  all  his  words  or  works.     If  the  under- 
standing of  any  man  forbids  the  flow  of  emotion  until  this 
veil  is  removed,  then  his  heart  will  never  feel  fully  in  this 
life  what  Paul  felt  when  he  said,  "  The  love  of  Christ  con- 
straineth  us,  because  we  thus  judge  that  if  one  died  for  all, 
then  were  all  dead."     We  were  all  dead,  and  he  died  for  the 
dead ;  and,  in  dying,  he  showed  his  conviction  of  our  state  of 
spiritual  death. 

But  we  have  done  with  proofs  of  man's  apostate  and  ruined 
state.  It  is  to  us  a  fact.  The  Word  of  God  declares  it,  and 
also  another  fact  which  rests  on  all  this  gloomy  cloud,  a  rain- 
bow-truth, "  The  Son  of  Man  has  come  to  seek  and  to  save 


112  SERMONS. 

that  which  was  lost."  O,  then,  ye  scoffing  economists,  let  us 
hear  no  more  your  severe  reproofs  of  our  poor  expenditures 
of  property  in  the  missionary  cause.  Jesus  is  the  master 
whom  we  follow,  though  at  too  great  a  distance ;  Jesus  is 
the  model  we  imitate,  though  very  imperfectly.  0,  then, 
covetous,  selfish  professors  of  Christ's  Gospel,  imbibe  his 
spirit,  and  live  and  labor  and  expend  for  the  recovery  of  the 
lost.  Brethren,  I  must  rise  now  from  the  attitude  of  defence, 
and  turn  and  charge  on  this  practical  indifference,  and  on  this 
sceptical  philosophy,  positive  guilt.  Had  the  Bible  contained 
its  present  amount  of  wisdom,  but  on  some  of  men's  temporal 
interests ;  had  it  determined  the  great  questions  of  finance ; 
how  eagerly  would  they  read  it,  how  cordially  believe  it ! 
Now,  as  a  spiritual  book,  the  one  class  disregard  it,  and  the 
other  look  at  it  as  full  of  exaggerations.  Yet  they  should 
remember  that  this  is  the  only  volume  in  human  language 
which  God  has  condescended  to  write.  And  should  it  not 
contain  deep,  high,  wondrous  things  ?  Is  not  this  one  of  its 
very  marks  and  seals  ?  The  Bible  is  full  of  paradoxes ;  be- 
cause it  shows  us  only  fragments  of  truths,  the  full  magni- 
tude and  harmony  of  Avhich  we  cannot  now  comprehend. 
God  knows  two  things  which  we  do  not  know,  and  therefore 
does  two  things  which  we  would  not  do.  He  knows  the 
demerit  of  sin,  and  therefore  threatens  it  with  everlasting 
punishment.  He  knows  the  value  of  the  soul,  and  therefore 
gives  his  Son  for  its  redemption.  Ye  that  despise  this  rich 
gift ;  ye  that  despise  us  for  our  efforts  to  proclaim  its  story 
to  the  world ;  let  me  say  to  you  in  God's  name,  Ye  have  a 


JESUS,   THE   GREAT  MISSIONARY.  113 

double  guilt,  and  must  meet  a  two-fold  condemnation.     You 
believe  not,  and  therefore  are  condemned  already.     You  also 
rob  the  world  of  its  hope.     Your  theories  and  your  practice 
would  leave  mankind  in  a  hopeless  condition.     You  dash 
from  the  trembling  hand  of  perishing  man  the  lamp  of  life, 
the  cup  of  salvation;  you  shatter  in  pieces  the  only  bark 
to  which  poor  human  nature  can  commit  its  hopes  for  eter- 
nity !     What  have  you  proved,  fellow-man  ?   At  best  a  nega- 
tive.    You  have  begun  and  ended  with  denying.     You  would 
prevent  our  going  to  probe  man's  moral  wound,  and  admin- 
ister God-s  efficacious  remedy.    If  one  finds  himself  the  slave 
of  passion,  if  his  conscience  condemns  him,  if  he  fears  that 
there  possibly  may  be  an  hour  of  retribution  and  an  eternity 
of  wretchedness  just  beyond  the  confines  of  life,  what  can 
you  say  to  this  troubled  spirit  ?    You  can  sneer ;  but  can  you 
console  ?    You  can  reason ;  but  can  you  suppress  the  instinct- 
ive solicitude  for  a  sure  and  solid  hope  of  immortal  blessed- 
ness?    To  amuse  man  with  theories,  but  to  leave  darkness 
on  this  chief  point  of  all  his  solicitude,  is  the  glory  of  anti- 
scriptural  philosophy.     Just  where  man  most  wants  light, 
it  is  darkness.    And  just  there  the  Bible  pours  the  effulgence 
of  eternal  day.     And  not  to  hail  that  light,  not  to  spread  it, 
is  treason  to  God's  mercy,  treason  to  our  sacred  trust,  treason 
to  man's  highest  interests. 

But  let  me  turn  a  moment,  in  closing,  to  you,  my  dear 
brother,  on  this  momentous  hour  of  your  life,  when  you  are 
come  to  receive  from  Jesus,  by  the  hands  of  his  unworthy 
10* 


114  SERMONS. 

servants,  the  investment  of  this  highest  office  confided  to 
man.     Let  me  saj  to  you  : 

That  deep  compassion  for  men  should  characterize  the 
whole  spirit  of  the  missionary,  and  of  missionary  work. 

Go  to  the  benighted,  with  as  glad  a  heart  as  animated  the 
angels  when  they  were  commissioned  to  announce  the  glad 
tidings  of  Heaven's  great  mission  of  love.  When  your  feet 
shall  touch  the  shores  of  that  distant  land,  sing,  in  the  ful- 
ness of  your  spirit,  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest,  peace  on 
earth,  and  good-will  to  man.  Be  touched,  like  your  High 
Priest,  with  a  feeling  of  their  infirmities.  Dwell  in  your 
thoughts  on  their  lost  estate ;  see  them  as  the  great  Shep- 
herd did,  wandering  from  the  fold ;  until  your  heart  bleeds 
and  breaks  with  pity.  This  will  animate  and  sustain  you 
amid  difficulties.  You  can  bear  them  for  the  sake  of  the 
miserable ;  for  yours  will  then  be  pity  tender  and  sustain- 
ing, like  that  of  the  patient  mother  by  the  couch  of  her  suf- 
fering child.  This  will  make  you  gentle  and  forbearing  and 
patient,  even  with  a  mother's  tenderness,  and  keep  you  from 
crushing  the  bruised  reed,  or  quenching  the  faintly-kindled 
wick.  This  will  speak  in  heavenly  eloquence  from  your  very 
countenance,  and  melt  the  gates  of  brass  in  the  hard  heart 
of  man.  This  will  give  you  errands  to  the  mercy-seat,  and 
arguments  before  it.  This  will  nerve  you  to  your  work, 
when  a  relaxing  climate  would  tend  to  unnerve  you.  This 
will  be  treading  in  the  footsteps  of  the  Great  IMissionary, 

Let  me  say  again  —  That  the  example  of  Christ  is  the 
missionary's  encouragement.     You  leave  all  for  those  you 


JESUS,    THE   GREAT  MISSIONARY.  115 

would  save  ;  so  did  he.     You  mean  to  identify  yourself  with 
them  in  everything  but  sin,  —  to  bear  their  infirmities,  and 
share  their  sorrows  ;  so  did  he.    You  are  acting  on  the  great 
principle  that,  to  save  from  overflowing  evil,  the  good  of  the 
universe  must  be  diffused,  not  concentrated  ;  so  did  he.    You 
are  going  to  men,  and  not  waiting  for  them  to  come  to  you ; 
so  did  he.     You  are  going  to  seek  and  to  save  that  which  is 
lost,  according  to  the  measure  imparted  to  you  of  the  Father ; 
so  did  he.   And  you  are  not  only  laboring  like  Christ,  but  also ' 
for  him  and  with  him.     He  is  seeking  these  very  souls.     He 
once  did  it  in  person.    Now  he  does  it  by  his  Spirit,  and  by  his 
people.     But  his  interest  is  no  less  now  than  when  his  sacred 
feet  were  traversing  the  land  which  your  feet  shall  traverse, 
to  save  the  perishing  sheep  of  Israel's  fold.     You  are  going 
like  him  to  pray  in  Gethsemane ;  but  he  spares  your  ascent 
to  Oolgotha  and  the  tree.     Go,  dear  brother,  moisten  with 
your  tears  for  man  the  soil  which  he  moistened  Avhen  he 
thought  of  the  lost.    Go,  assured  not  only  that  you  are  seek- 
ing them  for  Christ,  but  that  he  is  seeking  them  by  you  and 
with  you.     Urge  that  much,  and  with  much  faith  in  your 
prayers  ;  it  will  prevail  for  many  a  blessing. 

Let  us  conclude  by  saying  —  That  persuasion  to  believe 
in  Christ  is  the  missionary's  great  work.  To  effect  this, 
he  must  commend  himself  to  the  conscience.  Through  an 
awakened  conscience,  man  learns  his  need  of  Christ.  Go, 
then,  dear  brother,  speak  to  the  sleeping  conscience  of  man. 
Let  not  your  attention  be  fixed  upon  his  peculiarities,  his 
specific  qualities  as  an  individual  man,  or  his  more  general 


116  SERMONS. 

features  of  national  character,  his  theories  of  philosophy  and 
religion ;  but  meet  him  as  a  man,  as  a  lost  man  ;  nay,  as  one 
that  knows  he  is  lost.  If  your  attention  is  drawn  only  or 
chiefly  to  his  corporeal  miseries,  his  social  degradation,  his 
intellectual  privations,  you  will  incur  the  danger  of  diverting 
his  and  your  attention  from  that  which  should  arouse  your 
profounder  sympathies,  and  all  his  slumbering  energies  of 
conscience.  You  must,  indeed,  attempt  the  amelioration  of 
his  intellectual  and  social  state ;  but  guard  vigilantly  against 
letting  either  your  or  his  anxieties  and  efforts  terminate 
there.  When  you  have  to  meet  him  as  the  philosopher  of 
another  school,  you  may  be  discouraged  at  the  sincerity 
and  obstinacy,  nay,  perhaps,  plausibility,  with  which  he  can 
confront  you.  But,  when  you  meet  him  in  the  winning 
strength  of  a  deep  sympathy,  —  you,  the  lost  and  recovered, 
him,  the  lost  and  perishing  man,  —  then  you  are  in  your 
strongest  attitude,  he  is  in  his  most  defenceless.  The  mis- 
sionary must  speak  from  deep  experience  to  the  conscious- 
ness of  guilt  often  stifled,  never  annihilated,  in  the  impenitent 
bosom;  to  a  conscience  often  stifled,  often  cheated,  never 
tranquillized,  by  his  vain  superstitions.  Speak,  my  brother  ; 
now  in  thunder,  now  in  the  still  small  voice.  So  God 
speaks  in  nature  and  in  grace.  Man  will  understand  you, 
when  you  whisper  to  his  conscience.  Yet  you  may  awaken 
resistance.  The  light  is  painful  to  them  that  love  darkness. 
And  false  philosophy,  and  false  religion,  and  practical  unbelief, 
will  all  be  resorted  to,  to  shield  the  conscience.  And  yet 
your  great  work  is  to  bring  home  on  the  soul  of  each  man 


JESUS,    THE   GREAT   MISSIONARY.  117 

the  conviction  that  he  is  lost.  Trouble  yourself  little,  and 
others  still  less,  with  theories  of  human  depravity.  What- 
ever else  they  do,  they  do  not  awaken  the  conscience ;  and, 
if  I  mistake  not,  more  of  them  have  lulled  than  have  awak- 
ened it.  The  facts  of  depravity  and  conscience  are  two  of 
the  ultimate  facts,  to  be  taken  as  theological  axioms.  God 
has  not  proved  the  existence  of  either,  but  simply  asserted 
it.  And  so  may  we ;  both  on  his  testimony,  and  on  men's 
very  consciousness.  Perhaps  one  of  the  mightiest  elements 
of  ministerial  power  is  the  deep  conviction  on  the  soul  of 
the  lost  condition  of  man.  It  must  give  fervor  and  frequency 
to  prayer,  and  tend  greatly  to  produce  conviction  in  others. 
Your  hearer  may  be  proud  and  powerful  in  his  philosophy, 
he  may  be  self-complacent  in  his  creed  and  ceremonies.  But 
whisper  to  liis  soul  of  seasons  of  shame,  and  self-reproach, 
and  fear,  which  forebode  impending  doom,  and  he  cannot 
deny,  he  cannot  argue ;  for  he  feels  that  he  is  dealing  with 
truth  and  with  God.  In  your  public  addresses  deal  with 
the  conscience,  and  you  will  imitate  the  greatest  preachers. 
Study  the  sermons  of  Elijah  to  Ahab,  of  Nathan  to  David, 
of  Peter  to  the  thousands  at  Jerusalem,  of  Paul  to  Felix. 
There  you  find  no  flattery  of  human  nature,  no  general 
descriptions  of  virtue ;  but  guilt  and  condemnation  described 
as  pertaining  to  them  all.  Feel  that  man  is  lost ;  that  guilt 
and  condemnation  and  spiritual  poverty  belong  to  every  child 
of  Adam.  Proclaim  that  on  the  house-top  and  in  the  closet. 
Man  may  not  have  thought  of  it ;  but,  when  you  suggest  it, 
he  sees  that  it  is  truth.     Give  him  exalted  views  of  human 


118  SERMONS. 

dignity  and  worth,  not  as  it  is,  but  as  it  was  and  may  be. 
Solve  the  strange  perplexity  of  every  man's  experience ;  tell 
liim  what  you  know  of  former  conflicts  and  present  con- 
quests ;  of  noble  aspirations  after  heaven,  and  sordid  attach- 
ments to  earth  ;  of  desires  to  please  God,  and  determinations 
to  please  self  Speak  to  his  love  of  happiness;  he  will  under- 
stand you.  And,  as  you  solve  the  mystery  to  his  astonished 
soul,  as  you  describe  the  symptoms  of  his  spiritual  malady, 
as  you  point  him  to  the  balm  of  Gilead,  and  the  great  Phy- 
sician, a  new  life  of  hope  may  begin  to  infuse  itself  into  his 
soul.  Again,  I  say,  your  great  employment  is  to  bring  the 
individual  souls  of  men  to  Christ.  Be  not  diverted  from 
this  ;  be  not  satisfied  short  of  success  in  this.  If  you  must 
do  other  things,  consider  them  collateral  and  subordinate  to 
this.  Your  glorious  commission  is,  to  seek  and  save  the  lost. 
Be  filled,  be  fired  with  the  spirit  of  that  commission.  IMay 
you,  and  may  the  church,  and  all  of  us  who  announce  the 
Gospel,  be  more  and  more  filled  with  that  glorious  object  — 
the  recovering  to  immortal  spirits  the  lost  image  of  God,  and 
guiding  the  perishing  to  an  almighty  Saviour.  May  the 
Spirit  be  poured  from  on  high,  until  the  whole  church  sees 
and  feels  tliat  these  facts  are  now  of  chief  importance  —  man 
is  lost,  and  the  Son  of  God  is  seeking  him  ;  man  is  lost,  and 
the  Son  of  God  is  come  to  save  him  ;  man  is  lost,  and  the 
church  is  commissioned  to  go  forth  in  the  might  of  faith  and 
prayer  to  his  salvation.  To  save  the  lost !  To-night  we 
talk  of  it,  as  children  talk  of  the  afiairs  of  empires  ;  we  see 
through  a  glass  darkly ;  our  conceptions  are  low  and  limited. 


JESUS,    THE   GREAT   MISSIONARY.  119 

To  save  the  lost !  Tell  us,  ye  damned  spirits,  what  it 
means !  Tell  us,  Son  of  God,  what  it  means ;  what  stirred 
thy  soul  in  godlike  compassion  to  seek  the  lost !  Tell  us,  ye 
ransomed  and  ye  faithful  spirits  who  never  sinned  —  tell  us, 
eternity  —  what  is  this  mighty  work  of  Gospel-missions  ! 
Tell  us,  0  Father,  tell  thy  churches,  tell  thy  ministers ; 
until  every  slumberer  awake,  every  energy  be  aroused,  and 
the  way  of  life  be  pointed  out  to  a  perishing  race  ! 


YII. 

OUR   SANCTIFICATION. 


"JEfjis  is  t^t  tnill  of  (SoU,  c6cn  gour  sanrtif  ira  t  io  n." — 1  Thess.  4  :  3. 

Here  is  a  peculiar  feature  of  the  Scriptures ;  they  contain 
the  vastest  truths  shut  up  in  brief,  simple  sentences.  In 
this  one  word,  sanctification,  is  embraced  a  fact  which  trans- 
cends all  our  conceptiohs ;  which  concerns  us  more  intimately 
than  our  health,  our  honors,  our  position,  our  possessions, 
our  attainments  in  knowledge,  and  all  upon  which  the  heart 
of  the  world  is  most  earnestly  set.  It  concerns  us  little 
where  we  are,  what  we  possess,  what  others  think  us  to  be : 
but  what  we  are  is  a  matter  of  infinite  moment.  It  includes 
more  than  the  restoration  of  the  primitive  image  of  God  in 
our  spirits  ;   it  is  a  confirmation'  in  perfect  holiness  forever. 

And  it  is  here  aflSrmed  that  God  is  not  indifferent  to  us  ; 
and  that  what  he  prefers  to  all  things  for  us  is,  that  we 
become  perfectly  holy. 

To  get  this  momentous  truth  before  our  minds,  we  may 
meditate  on  the  intrinsic  evidence  of  it,  and  on  the  positive 
manifestation  God  has  made  of  this  feeling.     We  contemplate 


OUR   SANCTIFICATION.  121 

I.  The  intrinsic  evidence  of  the  fact  that  God 
DESIRES  OUR  sanctification.  —  This  is  a  form  of  evidence 
■which  springs  directly  from  contemplating  the  nature  of 
sanctification,  as  regarded  by  a  being  of  perfect  holiness  and 
kindness. 

1.  Sanctification  is  the  restoration  of  that  which  was 
ruined  by  the  ajmstasy.  —  God  is  not  the  God  of  confusion, 
but  of  order.  He  made  man  upright,  and  in  his  own  image. 
Nothing  has  grieved  and  oifended  him  like  the  apostasy  of 
angels  and  men.  His  work  was  marred ;  his  purposes  of 
goodness  were  defeated.  If  it  were,  then,  only  to  bring  back 
things  to  the  primitive  order,  when  he  pronounced  them  very 
good,  it  is  in  his  view  most  desirable  that  man  should  be 
made  holy.  We  might  never  have  dared  to  believe  this,  did 
not  God  afiirm  it.  But  now  that  he  does,  the  reasonableness 
and  naturalness  of  it  appears  very  clear.  We  do  not  wish 
to  see  a  bird  with  a  broken  wing,  a  ship  dismasted,  a  man 
dumb  or  blind,  or  a  machine  out  of  order.  And  it  delights 
us  when  we  see  them  restored  to  their  natural  state.  So 
God  delights  in  a  restoration  to  the  primitive  moral  order. 

2.  Sanctification  is  the  complete  reconciliation  of  ma?i 
to  God.  —  He  does  not  fear  our  enmity,  but  it  is  not  agreea- 
able  to  him.  As  a  lover  of  order,  he  must  be  pleased  to  see 
man  reconciled  to  that  pure  and  perfect  order  he  has  estab- 
lished. Sin  is  a  quarrel  with  God's  arrangements.  Crea- 
tion, providence,  law,  yea,  God  himself,  are  all  contrary  to 
our  taste  and  wishes,  just  so  far  as  we  are  sinners.  But 
sanctification  is  a  return  to  a  perfect  harmony  with  God  and 

11 


122  SERMONS. 

his  government,  his  providence  and  his  works.  And  it  must 
delight  him  who  is  himself  in  perfect  harmony  with  every- 
thing but  sin,  to  see  man  returning  to  a  sound  judgment,  a 
correct  taste,  a  pure  affection,  a  resigned  spirit  under  painful 
dealings  of  Providence,  a  cordial  submission  to  rightful  au- 
thority and  perfect  law,  a  genial  fellowship  with  all  good 
beings,  and  a  joyful  laboriousness  in  every  good  work.  God 
delights  in  our  sanctification,  too,  because 

3.  It  is  the  restoration  of  jjerfect  loveliness  to  mem.  — 
He  has  no  pleasure  in  sin.  It  is  to  him  what  defilement, 
deformity,  disorder,  confusion,  is  to  the  most  perfect  human 
senses.  It  is  supremely  offensive ;  and  he  would  prefer,  in 
every  case,  to  see  holiness  in  its  stead.  Holiness  is  lovely 
in  God's  eyes.  It  is  moral  beauty,  and  is  everywhere  the 
most  delightful  object  he  can  contemplate.  If  you  propose 
the  inquiry  concerning  any  rational  being  in  heaven,  earth, 
or  hell,  would  God  prefer  its  perfect  holiness,  this  moment, 
to  its  being  in  any  other  state,  there  can  be  but  one  reply : 
this  is  the  will  of  God,  even  their  sanctification.  He  loves 
the  sight  of  a  soul  sensible  of  its  sinful  state ;  still  more,  of 
one  fleeing  from  his  sins  to  his  Saviour ;  and  still  more,  of 
one  restored  to  perfect  holiness,  which  is  perfect  personal 
excellence  and  loveliness. 

And  this  satisfiiction  must  reach  a  high  degree  when  all 
the  sanctified  shall  come  together,  and  form  one  perfect 
family,  nation,  or  kingdom. 

This  natural  view  of  the  case  prepares  us  now  to  sur- 
vey 


OUR   SANCTIFICATION.  123 

II.  The  actions  of  God  in  reference  to  man's  sanc- 
TIFICATION,  that  we  may  see  some  practical  evidence  of  his 
desire  to  secure  it.  —  And  when  we  come  to  his  acts,  we  see 
more  than  mere  desire ;  we  see  great  earnestness. 

That  earnestness  has  manifested  itself  in  every  conceivable 
form.  It  has  approached  man  on  every  side,  assailed  him  at 
every  accessible  point,  pursued  and  pressed  him  with  every 
variety  of  motive.     It  comes  to  us  in  the  form  of 

Aiitliority.  —  We  are  made  for  law  and  authority.  A 
part  of  our  nature  which  has  survived  the  general  wreck  is 
our  susceptibility  to  feel  the  requirements  of  a  rightly  con- 
stituted authority.  See,  then,  the  Eternal  God  clothing  him- 
self in  the  robes  of  divine  majesty,  and  coming  down  to  the 
rugged  throne  of  Horeb,  to  make  a  law  requiring  man  to  be 
holy ;  and  throwing  around  that  law  all  the  sanctions  of  divine 
approbation  and  displeasure,  eternal  bliss  and  eternal  woe. 
There  is  earnestness.  God  is  moved  at  the  sight  of  our  sinful- 
ness, and  in  the  prospect  of  our  sanctification  deeply  moved ; 
and  he  intends  that  we  shall  be.  Therefore  he  addresses  the 
conscience,  the  most  commanding  faculty  in  our  souls,  when 
it  acts  at  all.  And  the  sum  of  his  law  is.  Thou  shalt  be  right 
and  do  right ;  thou  shalt  love  God  and  man  ;  in  other  words, 
thou  shalt  be  holy.  And  to  this  requirement  are  appended 
the  two  infinite  sanctions,  or  motives;  eternal  reward  and 
eternal  punishment.  What  is  intended  by  all  this  ?  Surely, 
that  God  would  by  it  move  us  to  become  holy.  And  that  in 
the  magnitude  of  that  authority  which  commands,  and  the 
immensity  of  those  consequences  which  he  attaches  to  obe- 


124  SERMONS. 

dience  and  disobedience,  lie  is  expressing  the  earnestness  of 
liis  desire  that  we  should  be  holy.  To  this  mighty  influence 
he  adds  the  potent  discipline  of  his  Providence.  Life  is  full 
of  meaning,  of  a  divine  meaning ;  and  blessed  is  he  who  can 
interpret  it.  Providence  is  a  mode  of  God's  action.  And  as 
all  his  acts  tend  to  a  definite  and  glorious  result,  that  result 
must  be  nothing  transient  or  trivial.  God  and  man  may  be 
seeking  totally  different  ends  from  the  same  action ;  and  man 
is  free  to  defeat  some  of  God's  highest  ends,  so  far  as  his 
own  welfare  is  concerned.  Let  us,  then,  take  the  afflictive 
dispensations  of  Providence.  They  smite  us,  they  wither 
our  hearts,  they  blast  our  gourd,  they  break  our  anchor- 
chain,  they  cast  us  into  a  fiery  furnace.  What  then  ?  These 
light  afflictions  work  out  for  us  a  far  more  exceeding  and 
■eternal  weight  of  glory.  Tlie  father  is  chastening  his  son. 
The  vine-dresser  is  pruning  off"  the  too  luxuriant  shoots ;  the 
refiner  is  preparing  the  silver  to  reflect  his  own  image.  This 
is  the  will  of  God,  even  your  sanctification. 

We  see  the  mighty  forces  of  nature  suspended,  —  the  sea 
rolled  back  upon  itself,  the  sun  arrested  in  his  course,  the 
dead  raised  to  life, —  to  call  forth  from  the  heart  of  man  that 
faith  and  love  which  are  the  starting-point  of  holiness.  Xay, 
we  see  the  Son  of  God  forsaking  the  throne  of  his  glory,  and 
descending  to  tabernacle  among  us  in  sorrow,  toil,  and  shame, 
that  he  may  show  man  how  to  be  holy,  and  may  win  him  to 
it.  We  see  him  in  agony,  bleeding  away  his  life,  to  this 
same  end.  Then  he  ascends  the  throne  of  heaven,  and 
wields  the  powers  of  the  universe,  and  sends  forth  his  Holy 


CUR   SANCTIFICATION.  125 

Spirit  to  make  the  heart  of  man  holy.  Thus  God  manifests 
the  earnestness  of  his  will  for  our  sanctification. 

With  our  minds  full  of  this  f\ict,  let  us  now  see  what 
important  practical  consequences  flow  from  it.  Since  there 
is  nothing  about  our  personal  conditions,  interests,  or  desti- 
nies, which  God  so  much  desires  as  our  sanctification,  then 

We  should  rejoice  in  our  afflictions.  —  This  was  Paul's 
view.  These  light,  momentary  afflictions  work  out  for  us  an 
eternal  weight  of  glory.  They  do  not  necessarily  benefit  us, 
but  that  is  their  tendency  and  design.  They  humble,  chasten, 
elevate,  and  purify,  those  who  recognize  God's  goodness  and 
wisdom  in  them.  "  Tribulation  worketh  patience;  patience, 
experience;  and  experience,  hope."  God,  in  chastising  us, 
is  aiming  at  our  perfection,  and  our  eternal  peace.  How 
improper  it  then  is  for  us  to  murmur,  and  fret,  and  yield 
ourselves  up  to  sorrow  alone  !  Christ  needed,  not  a  personal 
but  an  official  sanctification ;  and  he  cheerfully  submitted 
himself  to  the  fiery  trial,  that  he  might  "be  perfect  through 
sufiering."  We  need  not  love  pain  or  loss  for  their  own 
sakes ;  but  we  may  learn  to  rejoice  in  them  when  they  loosen 
our  cable,  and  set  us  free  to  return  to  our  native,  heavenly 
home.  We  may  well  rejoice  in  the  furnace  that  is  consuming 
our  dross.     Another  consequence  of  this  fact  is. 

We  should  be  earliest  in  the  use  of  religious  ordinaiices. 
—  We  see  that  the  end  God  seeks  for  us  is  the  highest  we 
can  pursue  for  ourselves.  The  change  to  be  produced  is 
more  important  than  any  other  we  can  experience,  and  it  is 
one  upon  which  we  see  that  God  sets  so  high  a  value.  But 
11* 


126  SERMONS. 

this  change  is  effected  through  the  ordinances  of  religion,  as 
the  appointed  means.  "  Sanctify  them  through  thy  truth." 
Therefore  we  should  relax  our  energies  at  no  stage  of  the 
process.  Some  of  us  may  be  at  the  very  commencement  of 
this  momentous  -work ;  for  it  has  a  beginning.  Whatever  the 
form  or  manner  of  conversion,  its  essence  is  the  same  in 
every  human  being.  It  is  a  turning  of  the  heart  from  wrong 
objects  of  desire  and  pursuit  to  right,  —  from  Avrong  depend- 
ence to  right.  The  man  who  has  an  unsanctified  heart  seeks 
temporal  good  for  himself,  and  for  those  he  loves.  He  is 
godless,  selfish,  worldly.  He  thinks  of  the  world,  pursues 
the  world,  enjoys  the  world.  To  begin  to  be  holy  is  to  cease 
from  all  this ;  and  to  begin  to  hate  this  selfishness,  and  god- 
lessness,  and  worldliness.  The  thoughts  begin  to  take  a 
new  range,  —  the  heart,  to  seek  new  objects  of  pursuit,  and 
dwell  on  new  objects  of  afiection ;  the  process  of  purifica- 
tion is  begun ;  the  dross  of  selfishness  and  ungodliness  is 
loosening  from  the  soul,  to  leave  it  a  purified,  holy  vessel  in 
God's  eternal  sanctuary.  And  with  this  change  in  the 
desires  comes  a  change  in  the  confidence  of  the  heart.  It 
ceases  to  trust  the  world  or  self  Christ  has  now  taken  that 
place.  He  is  trusted  for  all  the  soul  wants,  which  now  dis- 
covers its  utter  bankruptcy.  Trust  is  the  deepest  homage 
of  the  heart,  and  man  cannot  be  holy  until  his  heart  renders 
this  homage  to  our  God  and  Saviour. 

Of  course  so  radical  a  change  in  the  heart  must  greatly 
affect  the  outward  life.  All  immorality  ceases.  Benevo- 
lence, honor,  fidelity,  marks  the  intercourse  with  man,  if 


OUR  SANCTIFICATIOjST.  127 

they  were  wanting  before ;  and  if  they  were  not  wanting, 
they  now  manifest  themselves  as  based  on  profounder  princi- 
ples, and  connected  with  a  humility  before  unknown.  And 
to  these  is  conjoined  a  devotional  attendance  on  the  various 
rites  of  divine  worship. 

Then  this  change  has 

A  progress.  —  And  that  is  the  will  of  God,  that  we  be 
more  perfectly  transformed.  With  Paul  we  are  to  forget  the 
things  that  are  behind,  and  reach  forward  to  those  Avhich  are 
before.  Inward  principles  are  to  be  strengthened.  Wrong 
habits  are  to  be  subdued.  A  divine  life  is  to  be  gradually 
superseding  an  earthly ;  and  a  benevolent,  a  selfish  life.  This 
is  the  will  of  God.  The  intercourse  with  God  is  to  be  more 
complete  and  frequent.  The  higher  motives  are  to  take  place 
of  the  lower,  in  all  actions.  Men  are  to  feel,  in  their  inter- 
course with  us,  that  we  are  becoming  more  like  Christ. 

Then  it  is  to  have 

A  consummation.  —  And  this  is  the  will  of  God,  that  we 
become  perfect  in  holiness.  That  is  the  end,  —  the  great 
end,  to  ^vhich  all  tlie  preceding  steps  were  only  means.  This 
will  be  the  second  creation,  upon  which  our  benevolent  Cre- 
ator will  look,  and  pronounce  it  very  good.  Therefore,  to  the 
last,  we  should  wait  on  God  in  his  appointed  way,  with  even 
increased  earnestness.     Moreover, 

We  should  be  cojijident  of  success  in  the  right  employ- 
ment  of  religions  ordinances.  — There  is  no  ground  for  the 
same  confidence  in  the  pursuit  of  any  other  end,  for  no  other 
is  so  precious   in   God's   sight.      All  who  are   struggling 


128  SERMONS. 

toward  this  glorious  attainment  have  the  strongest  reasons  to 
be  encouraged.  You  are  not  alone  in  this  work.  The  very 
commencement  of  it  separated  you  from  an  irreligious  world. 
They  wonder,  now,  that  they  miss  you  here  and  there,  — 
that  you  no  longer  furnish  them  the  same  entertainment  as 
formerly.  You  lose  their  sympathy  and  countenance.  You 
find  too  few  of  the  members  of  the  church  ready  to  sympa- 
thize Avith  your  new  feelings ;  and  thus  you  may  come  to  a 
discouraging  feeling  of  solitariness  and  helplessness.  If  you 
knew  it,  this  vacant  place  is  made  around  3'ou  that  it  may  be 
filled  with  a  new  presence.  You  are  cast  off  fiom  man,  that 
you  may  be  thrown  upon  God.  Human  hearts  repel,  tliat 
you  may  turn  to  that  heart  full  of  a  divine  sympathy.  AVho- 
ever  may  be  indifferent  to  your  new  feelings,  desires,  and 
purposes.  One  is  not;  and,  if  you  could  but  apprehend  it, 
that  One  is  all;  all  else  are  vanity,  nonentity,  in  the  com- 
parison. The  mighty  God  of  Jacob  ^vills  your  sanctification. 
You  are  struggling  for  faith,  humility,  charity.  He  has 
fixed  his  heart  upon  your  attaining  them  all,  and  in  perfec- 
tion. He  wills  with  you,  has  willed  before  you ;  has  never 
changed  his  will,  nor  diminished  the  intensity  of  his  desire. 
All  his  perfections,  all  his  purposes  and  plans,  are  Avith  you. 
Set  any  other  end  before  you,  and  you  have  not  God  with 
you.  He  may  permit  you  to  succeed  in  that  pursuit ;  he  may, 
in  righteous  anger,  prosper  j'-ou.  But,  in  pursuing  this  end, 
you  have  God  fully  with  you.  Can  man  ask  for  more  encour- 
agement? You  go  to  pray,  discouraged  and  fearful.  You 
wish  to  pray  aright.     You  desire  to  make  some  attainment 


OUR  SANCTIFICATION.  129 

in  holiness.  Well,  you  go  not  alone ;  for  this  is  the  will 
of  God,  even  your  sanctification.     This  truth  also 

Furnishes  the  highest  obligation  and  the  fullest 
encouragement  to  labor  for  eacJi  other  s  sanctification. — 
It  is  the  will  of  God  that  every  intelligent  creature  he 
has  formed,  be  holy.  Has  any  one  a  right  to  regard  this 
desire  of  his  Creator  ^\ith  indifference  ?  As  Ave  are  bound  to 
pray  continually,  "  Thy  will  be  done  on  earth  as  in  heaven," 
so  are  we  bound  to  desire  that  every  human  being  may  please 
God,  by  being  holy.  Indifference  to  the  spiritual  interests 
of  our  fellow-men,  satisfaction  with  their  remaining  in  a  state 
of  unholy  alienation  from  God,  is  itself  a  sin.  But  if  we 
are  bound  to  desire  the  sanctification  of  other  men,  we  are 
also  bound  to  do  what  in  us  lies  to  secure  that  end.  There- 
fore, they  who  despise  Christian  missions  are  very  wicked  in 
God's  sight.  They  who  have  no  interest  in  them  manifest 
an  indifference  to  God's  will,  which  betrays  a  heart  at  enmity 
with  him. 

The  obligation  to  do  what  we  can  to  secure  the  sanctifica- 
tion of  all  men  is  founded  on  this  desire  of  God,  and  on  our 
obligation  to  secure  those  results  which  are  pleasing  to  him. 

And  no  other  labor  has  such  encouragement.  The  very 
effort  we  make  is  pleasing  to  our  heavenly  Father,  whether 
successful  or  unsuccessful.  But  in  no  work  have  we  more 
reason  to  expect  ultimate  success  and  such  desirable  results ; 
for  there  is  no  other  which  is  so  entirely  accordant  with  the 
■will  of  God. 

Here  is  the  responsibility  and  encouragement  of  those  who 


130  SERMONS. 

are  members  of  the  same  church.  We  have  eno-afied  to  seek 
each  other's  sanctification.  What  motives  to  faithfulness  can 
be  stronger  than  these  ?  In  doing  this,  they  are  discharging 
their  highest  obligations,  pleasing  their  heavenly  Father,  and 
enjoying  his  couperation.  If  God  desires  the  sanctification 
of  all  men,  then 

The  condition  of  the  irreliffious  is  fearful.  —  God 
vv'ishes  us  to  be  holy.  And  his  desii-e  lays  upon  each  of  us  the 
obligation  to  gratify  him.  We  have  no  right  to  be  grieving 
him,  and  opposing  his  wishes,  day  by  day,  and  year  after  year. 
And  there  is  no  validity  in  the  excuse  so  often  presented  to 
lull  the  conscience  :  "If  God  ca7i  help  me  to  become  holy, 
he  is  so  indifferent  about  it  that  he  never  will."  That  is 
not  true.  He  is  not  indifferent ;  and,  from  the  holiness  and 
benevolence  of  his  nature,  never  can  be.  Many  persons, 
indeed,  imagine  that  they  are  desirous  of  being  saved,  but 
that  their  feelings  on  this  point  find  no  sympathy  in  God. 
Now,  so  far  from  this.  God  desires  them  to  be  saved ;  and 
his  feelings  find  no  sympathy  in  theirs.  They  may  wish  to 
send  on  and  secure  a  good  apartment  in  tlie  hotel  ])eyond 
the  sea  of  death,  as  travellers  often  do  in  going  from  city 
to  city.  But  if  salvation  consists  in  becoming  sanctified, 
that  docs  not  enter  into  their  wishes,  much  less  their  plans. 
Let  every  one,  then,  press  his  own  conscience  with  the  weight 
of  this  consideration  :  God  desires  me  to  be  holy,  and  to  be 
perfect  in  his  likeness.  And  to  this  let  it  be  added  that  he 
requires  us  to  be  holy.  "  Be  ye  holy,  for  I  am  holy,  saith 
the  Lord."     That  command  makes  our  obligation  complete. 


OUR    SAXCTIFICATION,  131 

And  it  is  universally  binding.  No  human  being  is  exempt 
in  any  condition,  or  at  any  time.  And  -whoever  is  not  turn- 
ing from  sin  to  holiness,  is  living  in  the  incessant  breach  of 
the  highest  obligations.  Conscience  may  be  blinded  and 
silenced  hj  ingenious  excuses,  and  quieted  by  the  approbation 
of  others ;  but  that  does  not  annihilate  or  diminish  the  obli- 
gation to  turn  from  sin  to  holiness. 

And  every  one  who  feels  this  obligation  the  most  deeply,  has 
the  deepest  sense  of  his  own  failure  to  be  what  God  requires. 
We  have  but  begun  to  obey  this  command ;  and  the  more 
earnestly  we  endeavor  to  obey  it,  the  more  profoundly  do  we 
discover  the  evil  and  the  power  of  sin.  Hence  the  best  men 
make  the  most  self-abasing  acknowledgments  of  sin  to  God, 
the  more  fully  they  are  escaping  from  its  thraldom.  What 
remains,  is  to  them  infinitely  more  dreadful  than  the  whole 
undiminished  power  and  being  of  sin  in  the  impenitent ;  as 
the  Aveary  traveller  approaching  his  home  finds  the  last 
obstructing  mountains  more  tedious  and  painful  than  many 
much  more  rugged  and  difficult,  which  met  him  in  the  begin- 
ning of  his  way. 

Some,  however,  relieve  themselves  from  the  pressure  of 
obligation  by  a  formal  admission  of  their  inability.  They 
can  do  many  things,  and  are  willing  to  do  them,  which  would 
express  some  earnestness  in  regard  to  securing  eternal  hap- 
piness. But.  to  begin  the  work  of  personal  sanctification,  to 
change  their  own  hearts,  and  to  cultivate  the  love  of  God, 
seems  to  them  a  hopeless  undertaking.  They  turn  from  the 
subject  after  coming  to  this   conclusion,  relieved   from   all 


132  SERMONS. 

sense  of  obligation,  satisfied  with  therasclves,  if  not  with  their 
prospects.  Here  is  a  sad  delusion.  The  discovery  of  our  own 
weakness,  so  far  from  being  a  step  backward,  is  the  first 
onward  step  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  When  the  desire  of 
holiness  and  eternal  life  is  once  awakened  in  the  human  soul, 
the  next  step  toward  life  is  faith.  But  pride  or  self-reliance 
is  the  great  antagonist  to  faith.  When  will  men  understand 
this,  and  learn  that  every  attainment  in  the  divine  life  is  a 
manifestation  of  superhuman  strength  put  forth  in  him  who  is 
conscious  of  his  own  weakness.  Whoever  you  may  be,  fellow- 
mortal,  you  are  bound  to  be  all  that  you  can  conceive  of  in  being 
pious,  religious,  converted,  a  Christian,  godly  or  sanctified. 
Your  excuses  are  pretences,  not  reasons.  There  is  an  impos- 
sibility, in  one  view  of  the  case.  And  you  may  contemplate 
that  until  your  pride  is  thoroughly  destroyed.  But  there  is 
equally  a  possibility.  God  Avill  help  you  to  become  holy. 
If  you  will  come  to  Christ,  his  strength  will  be  made  perfect 
in  your  weakness.  If  you  will  with  cordial  sympathy  enter 
into  the  feelings  which  induced  him  to  visit  our  world,  to 
live  his  lowly  and  sorrowful  life,  to  die  on  the  accui'sed  tree  ; 
if  you  will  cordially  die  to  sin  with  him,  be  crucified  to  the 
world,  descend  with  him  to  his  sepulchre,  and  there  bury 
your  old  nature,  then  shall  you  burst  the  gates  of  death  w  ith 
him,  and  rise  to  a  new  life.  The  single  question,  then,  is, 
will  you  ?  It  matters  not  what  practical  diflSculty  lies  in 
your  Avay.  This  embarrassment  is  but  a  work  of  the  devil ; 
and  the  Son  of  God  "  was  manifested  that  he  might  destroy 
the  works  of  the  devil."     Frequently  you  have  said,  "Well, 


OUR  SANCTirrCATIOIT.  133 

after  all,  this  religion  is  such  an  intangible,  mystical,  remote 
affair,  that  I  can  do  nothing  with  it  practically.  If  there  is 
a  supernatural  influence  that  comes  down  upon  some  per- 
sons, by  which  they  see  it  differently,  and  find  what  the  first 
step  is,  I  must  wait  for  that.  But,  as  it  is,  I  can  do  noth- 
ing ;  and  I  see  not  that  I  am  bound  to  make  any  change,  or 
take  any  step  in  this  matter."  And  yet,  when  you  have 
reached  that  conclusion,  and  stated  that  argument  so  satis- 
factorily to  yourself,  a  voice  reaches  you  from  the  throne 
above,  "Be  ye  holy,  for  I  am  holy ;  thou  shalt  love  the 
Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart."  Your  premises  were 
correct,  that  you  are  weak  as  infancy  in  this  great  work. 
But  your  inference  is  unsound,  that,  therefore,  you  are  not 
bound  to  be  sanctified.  You  are  bound,  because  this  is  the 
will  of  God,  even  your  sanctification.  Your  refusal  to 
begin  is  unreasonable,  because  you  have  all  the  sympathy 
of  an  omnipotent  Saviour  with  you,  the  instant  you  com- 
mence in  earnest.  And  the  more  you  distrust  yourself,  and 
trust  him,  the  more  rapid  will  be  your  progress. 

Now,  to  neglect  this  duty,  and  disregard  all  these  obliga- 
tions, is  fearful.  It  is  offering  desperate  resistance  to  God ; 
fostering  an  utter  delusion  about  your  own  true  interests ; 
wasting  all  your  zeal  and  energy  upon  objects  which  possess 
no  intrinsic  value,  while  neglecting  those  of  infinite  moment. 
The  truth,  then,  before  us  brings  us  to  this  urgent  conclu- 
sion: 

Every  jyerson  loho  knows  that  the  will  of  God  is  his 
sanctification^  is  bound  to  turn  at  once  to  the  Lord 
12 


134  SERMONS. 

Jesus  Christ,  to  seek  and  trust  him  with  the  whole  heart. 
—  God  made  you  to  be  holy.  He  has  always  supremely 
desired  this  concerning  you.  Up  to  this  moment  you  have 
disregarded  that  will,  broken  through  the  restraints  he  had 
thrown  around  you.  And  now,  with  unchanged  desire, 
his  eye  is  fixed  on  you,  and  his  parental  sovereign  voice  is 
addressing  you:  "Be  ye  holy,  for  I  am  holy."  Here,  0 
fellow-man,  here  is  your  duty  —  your  solemn,  urgent,  imme- 
diate duty.  Abandon  your  excuses  and  vain  reasonings. 
They  change  no  fact ;  they  do  no  good.  They  only  deceive 
your  conscience,  harden  your  heart,  and  offend  your  God. 

I  once  pressed  this  subject  on  the  attention  of  a  young 
friend.  He  admitted  everything,  felt  everything ;  only  did 
not  allow  the  conviction  to  penetrate  and  possess  his  soul, 
'•'  I  must  take  the  first  step  now."  It  seemed  to  him  as  it 
seems  now  to  you.  It  cannot  be  at  this  living  moment. 
And  yet,  in  a  few  months  from  that  day,  he  sent  for  me  in 
haste  from  the  bed  of  death.  Then  he  felt  that  it  is  a  work 
of  infinite  importance,  and  of  immediate  obligation.  But 
why  more  now  that  he  lay  on  that  bed,  pressed  with  a  thou- 
sand embarrassments,  than  if  he  sat  where  you  sit  on  that 
bench  ?  0,  the  deceived  heart  of  man  !  0,  the  subtlety  and 
ascendency  of  our  dread  enemy  ! 

Who  is  going  from  this  house  of  God  to-day,  regardless  of 
his  Maker's  will  ?  Who  can  afford  to  perish  under  such  cir- 
cumstances ?  God  wills  your  sanctification,  and  you  are  not 
willinor  it ! 


YIII. 

EFFECTUAL  PRAYER. 


"^t)e  tffJttual  ftrfecnt  prancr  of  a  rigf)tcous  man  abatUtl;  mucfj." 
—  James  5  :  16. 

Two  facts  are  here  affirmed :  that  prayer  is  efficacious ; 
that  the  efficacy  of  prayer  is  proportioned  to  its  holy  energy. 
The  words  "effectual,  fervent,"  represent  one  Greek  word, 
which  might  be  rendered  —  energized,  inwrought.  Prayer 
is  not  words  nor  attitudes ;  nor  merely  a  desire  feebly  felt, 
and  coldly  uttered,  to  a  being  scarcely  recognized.  The 
spirit  of  prayer  is  the  result  of  energy ;  and  is  itself  the 
highest  form  of  human  energy.  It  is  the  mighty  result  of 
the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  who  "  searcheth  the  deep 
things  of  God;  "  aiding  our  infirmities,  and  making  "inter- 
cession for  us  with  groanings  which  cannot  be  uttered."  The 
prince  of  apostles,  accounting  for  his  own  Christian  efficiency, 
says,  that  God  wrought  mightily  in  him.  It  is  likewise 
inwrought  by  our  own  efforts,  and  the  assiduous  cultivation 
of  religious  principles  and  sentiments  in  our  hearts. 

We  first  maintain,  then, 

I.  That  prayer  may  prevail  with  God.  —  This  fact  is 


136  SERMONS. 

more  doubted  than  denied.  Many  who  affirm  it  would  find, 
on  a  close  scrutiny,  that  they  in  reality  disbelieve  it.  For 
our  belief  is  controlled,  and  our  feelings  are  determined,  by 
many  propositions  which  we  have  never  framed  into  language, 
and  much  less  accepted  on  sufficient  evidence.  One  of  these 
propositions  is,  that  prayer  has  no  tendency  to  influence  God; 
or,  in  another  form,  "  I  shall  receive  no  benefit  in  answer  to 
prayer."  We  believe  that  proposition  every  day  we  live 
without  prayer ;  every  time  we  rise  discouraged  from  pros- 
tration in  prayer.  It  becomes  us,  then,  to  look  closely  into 
the  sources  of  evidence  on  this  very  important  question :  May 
prayer  prevail  with  God  ?  or,  is  it  unreasonable  to  expect  to 
receive  what  we  ask  from  God  ?  And  I  now  affirm,  in  view 
of  all  objections,  that  there  are  no  valid  reasons  for  doubt- 
ing that  prayer  may  bring  us  blessings  from  God,  directly 
and  indirectly,  which  we  should  not  procure  without  it. 

Let  us,  then,  notice,  that  all  our  objections  to  a  full  belief 
in  the  efficacy  of  prayer  arise  from  a  greater  confidence  in 
our  own  unaided  reasonings,  and  certain  intuitive  convictions, 
than  in  the  testimony  of  God ;  a  vain  confidence,  by  Avhich 
we  make  it  impossible  that  God  should  teach  us  anything 
we  cannot  know  without  his  instruction. 

In  this  connection,  therefore,  I  would  remind  you  of  one 
or  two  facts,  which  tend  to  modify  an  extravagant  confidence 
in  our  reason. 

One  is  this:  The  Author  of  nature  has  not  consulted 
human  Avisdom  in  the  arrangement  of  even  material  causes. 
We  know  that  fii-e  consumes  wood.     But  how  do  we  come  to 


EFFECTUAL   PRAYER.  137 

know  it  ?  B  J  reasoning  beforehand  how  it  ought  to  be  ? 
No ;  there  is  not  a  single  law  of  matter  or  mind  that  man 
has  found  out  by  anticipation.  He  has,  indeed,  conjectured, 
after  seeing  the  operation  of  a  cause  in  one  set  of  circum- 
stances, that  it  might  operate  equally  in  another ;  but,  then, 
he  has  depended  on  previous  observation  for  this  conjecture, 
and  on  subsequent  observation  to  confirm  the  conjecture. 
And  human  reason,  therefore,  is  no  more  competent  to  deny 
that  prayer  may  move  God,  and  so  move  all  second  causes, 
than  it  was  competent  to  deny  that  the  same  force  which 
makes  an  apple  fall  to  the  ground  binds  the  planetary  sys- 
tem together.  God  has  not  waited  for  human  wisdom  in 
arranging  causes  and  effects ;  and  he  may,  therefore,  have 
given  prayer  a  place  which  that  wisdom  would  not  have 
assigned  it.     But  again : 

The  Author  of  nature  has  contradicted  the  wisdom  of  man 
in  the  constitution  of  the  universe.  I  mean  by  the  wisdom 
of  man.  his  mere  logic,  independent  of  his  observation,  and 
those  impressions  or  perceptions  to  which  men  yield  such 
firm  credence,  even  in  opposition  to  the  Scriptures.  For 
more  than  five  thousand  years  from  the  creation  of  the 
world  the  wisest  men  were  continually  making  the  most 
egregious  blunders  in  describing  the  processes  of  nature. 
Every  ancient  cosmogony,  but  that  of  Moses,  is  now  seen  to 
be  a  mass  of  folly.  The  reason  of  man  was  continually 
declaring  how  things  ought  to  be  and  must  be.  But,  when 
Lord  Bacon  at  length  arose  to  disenthrall  the  human  mind, 
he  showed  that,  except  in  the  department  of  abstract  truth, 
12* 


138  SERMONS. 

as  mathematics  and  metaphysics,  they  must  look  outward; 
that  evidence,  not  intuition,  must  guide  them.  Conjectures 
concerning  the  Creator's  plans  and  modes  of  action  were  use- 
less ;  and,  if  confided  in,  injurious.  We  now  see  that  human 
reason,  without  any  testimony  from  God  to  guide  it,  was 
perfectly  unable  to  tell  how  he  ought  to  make  a  universe, 
or  how  he  had  made  it.  If,  then,  men  have  reasoned  so 
short  of  the  truth,  and  so  against  it,  in  regard  to  material 
causes,  why  should  we  trust  our  reason  against  the  testimony 
of  God  in  the  higher  departments  of  truth  ? 

These  general  considerations  we  adduce  before  making  a 
more  particular  examination  of  the  objections  which  human 
reason  presents  to  the  efficacy  of  prayer.  It  is  perfectly 
manifest  that  there  is  no  solid,  rational  ground  for  denying 
or  doubting  the  efficacy  of  prayer,  because  the  whole  subject 
lies  beyond  the  sphere  of  intuitive  or  abstract  reasoning. 
Yet  there  are  objections  which  these  general  views  are  not 
sufficient  to  remove. 

One  may  be  thus  stated:  "We  are  conscious  of  an 
immeasurable  disparity  between  the  Infinite  mind  and  our 
limited  understandings.  We  cannot  teach  him  anything. 
When  we  tell  him  our  wants  and  feelings,  he  knows  before- 
hand all  that  we  can  say,  and  more  than  we  can  say ;  so  that 
our  expressions  at  last  come  short  of  his  knowledge.  Is  it 
not,  then,  a  loss  of  time,  and  a  vain  ceremony,  to  make  such 
addresses  to  the  Deity  ?  Even  we,  ourselves,  find  it  very 
irksome  to  hear  from  a  person  a  long  recital  of  his  troubles, 
and  especially  when  we  happen  to  know  the  whole  story 


EFFECTUAL   PRAYER.  139 

before  he  begins  to  recount  it."     This  is  the  strongest  form 
I  can  give  the  objection. 

Now,  there  are  at  least  three  distinct  grounds  upon  which 
its  entire  futility  can  be  shown :  the  very  nature  of  com- 
munion ;  the  relations  and  feelings  of  a  teacher ;  and  those  of 
a  parent.  If  there  be  a  possibility  of  such  a  thing  as  com- 
munion between  God  and  his  creatures,  then  that  communion 
must  be  the  interchange  of  thoughts  and  feelings.  To  be 
intellectual,  social,  and  spiritual,  it  must  be  that,  and  nothing 
else  than  that.  It  might,  indeed,  be  more  interesting  to 
Jehovah  to  commune  with  the  archangels,  their  range  of 
thought  being  so  much  loftier,  and  their  emotions  being  so 
much  nobler  than  ours.  Yet,  if  we  are  to  commune  with 
God,  it  must  be  by  imparting  our  thoughts  to  him,  and  ex- 
pressing our  emotions,  such  as  they  are.  So  that,  unless  it 
can  be  shown  that  the  Creator  is  forever  to  be  cut  off  from 
all  intellectual  and  social  communion  with  all  his  creatures 
(for  the  objection  as  really  lies  against  his  communion  with 
angels  and  archangels),  then  our  intellectual  disparity  is  not 
a  good  and  sufficient  reason  why  we  should  not  pray.  More- 
over, we  can  learn  from  tlie  feelings  of  a  teacher  who  takes 
a  deep  interest  in  the  communication  of  his  pupil,  how  God 
can  be  pleased  to  hear  our  prayers.  It  is  not  so  much  that 
the  pupil  imparts  any  information,  or  that  his  notions  are  all 
correct ;  but  it  is  because  he  is  making  progress,  and  because 
this  is  the  way  in  which  he  is  to  be  developed.  Our  heavenly 
Father  may  see  that  by  no  exercise  we  perform  do  we  make 
such  progress  in  all  spiritual  attainments  as  by  fervent,  ener- 


140  SERMONS. 

gized  prayer.  And  then,  again,  the  parental  feelings  ex- 
plain much.  In  the  nursery,  words  are  not  weighed  with 
the  balance  of  the  schools.  The  first  distinct  utterance 
of  the  endearing  epithet  father,  from  an  infant's  lips,  has 
more  eloquence  to  his  ear  than  the  most  learned  and  skilful 
orator  ever  utters.  Nay,  the  prattling  of  the  little  creature 
finds  its  way  to  the  deepest  recesses  of  sensibility  in  the  soul. 
We  must  remember,  then,  that  our  prayer  commences  thus : 
"Our  Father."  Call  it  prattling,  if  you  please;  but  a 
father's  ear  is  to  receive  it,  and  a  father's  heart  to  appraise 
it.  Say  that  the  recital  of  our  troubles  is  tedious  to  Gabriel, 
if  you  please:  but  remember  it  is  not  Gabriel,  but  our 
heavenly  Father,  who  is  to  hear  it. 

A  kindred  difiiculty  to  this  is,  that  "  there  is  such  majesty 
and  grandeur  in  the  King  of  heaven  that  we  are  too 
mean  to  approach  him."  It  may  suffice  now  to  say,  in  ref- 
erence to  this  embarrassment,  that  it  can  be  turned  into  an 
encouragement  by  applying  to  it  one  passage  of  the  Word : 
"  If  I  be  a  Father,  where  is  my  honor ;  and  if  I  be  a  Master, 
where  is  my  fear?"  The  legitimate  consequence  of  his 
majesty  and  authority  and  glory  is  to  exact  homage,  adora- 
tion, and  praise.  This  spiritual  tribute  of  thanksgiving  and 
praise,  this  humble  confession  of  sin,  and  recognition  of  de- 
pendence, is  precisely  the  kind  of  revenue  which  we  can 
furnish  to  the  king's  treasury;  and,  therefore,  just  the  kind 
that  he  expects  of  us.  There  is  one  blessed  line  of  Scripture 
worth  infinitely  more  than  all  the  deductions  of  an  earth-born 


EFFECTUAL   PRAYER.  141 

■wisdom  :  the  High  and  Mighty  One  declares,  "Whoso  offer- 
eth  praise,  glorifieth  me." 

Another  doubt  arises  from  the  divine  goodness,  about 
^vhich  we  sometimes  reason  thus:  "If  God  is  infinitely 
kind,  and  disposed  to  promote  our  welfare,  then  he  will  not 
withhold  any  blessing,  simply  because  we  do  not  ask  for  it, 
or  ask  with  suj05cient  fervor ;  nor  would  he  more  bestow  it 
for  our  asking."  Now,  upon  all  this  logic  we  ask  two  ques- 
tions :  Is  it  so  in  fact?  and  ought  it  to  be  so  of  right? 

As  to  the  matter  of  fact,  we  may  make  our  experiment 
in  any  department  of  life.  Man  needs,  for  example,  an 
abundant  supply  of  the  fruits  of  the  earth.  Let  him,  then, 
apply  this  short-hand  inference  from  God's  goodness  to  this 
case.  God  is  kind,  and  disposed  to  bestow  every  good  thing 
on  all  his  creatures;  therefore  he  will  not  withhold  any 
needful  quantity  of  Indian  corn  and  wheat  and  vegetables, 
simply  because  we  do  not  perform  this  or  that  agricultural 
operation,  nor  is  it  reasonable  to  think  he  will  the  more 
bestow  it  for  our  labors.  Does  omnipotent  Goodness  require 
the  aid  of  ploughs  and  harrows  to  feed  his  children  ?  Here 
we  see  the  reasons  to  be  entirely  contradictory  to  facts ;  for 
we  know  that  it  holds  true  in  regard  to  every  department  of 
life,  "  the  hand  of  the  diligent  maketh  rich,  but  the  sluggard 
Cometh  to  want."  And  there  can  be  no  reason,  derived  from 
the  kindness  of  God,  to  show  that  it  is  not  as  true  of  praying 
as  of  ploughing.  And  as  we  can  see  how  the  welfare  of  man 
and  of  society  is  promoted  by  the  arrangement  which  creates 
a  necessity  for  labor,  and  how  this  arrangement  is  a  fruit  of 


142  SERMONS. 

the  divine  goodness  in  all  the  arts  and  employments  of  life, 
so  we  can  see  how  the  goodness  of  God  may  have  made 
prayer  a  necessary  means  of  procuring  many  indispensable 
blessings,  on  account  of  its  direct  benefit  to  us.  Nothing  in 
its  place  more  cultivates  the  character  than  fervent,  effectual, 
or  energized  prayer;  and  there  is,  in  itself  considered,  no 
higher  privilege  to  man  than  this  communing  and  pleading 
with  the  Most  High.  It  may  be  found  true  that  prayer  is 
the  chief  instrument  of  our  spiritual  cultivation,  considered 
only  in  its  direct  influence  on  ourselves.  Look  at  it  in  this 
light : 

Temptation  has  no  power  to  the  soul  while  in  communion 
with  its  INIaker ; 

Every  truth  in  the  Scriptures  completes  its  work  in  us 
when  it  leads  us  to  address  God  with  appropriate  feeling ; 

Providence  completes  its  work  in  us  when  it  leads  to  bless 
the  hand  that  feeds,  to  kiss  the  hand  that  smites  us.  "Is 
any  afflicted,  let  him  pray;  "  and,  to  cite  no  more  illustra- 
tions. 

Sympathy  with  a  Holy  Redeemer,  in  regard  to  his  king- 
dom, gains  nowhere  on  the  heart  as  in  prayer. 

A  fourth  difficulty  is  with  the  Omniscience,  Foreknowledge, 
and  Unchangeableness,  of  God.  The  force  of  the  objection 
is  this :  "  If  he  has  determined  from  all  eternity  Avhat  he 
will  do,  or  if  he  knows  everything  that  we  can  tell  him,  our 
telling  him  cannot  change  his  view,  so  as  to  induce  him  to 
change  hie  purpose."  This  chilling  argument  is  with  many 
persons  A'ery  powerful.     It  is  strange  that  it  should  be  so 


EFFECTUAL   PRAYER.  143 

with  some  ;  who,  if  asked  whether  they  believe  in  the  fore- 
knowledge of  God,  would  promptly  answer.  By  no  means. 
But  with  those  who  believe  that  all  things  are  known  to  him, 
from  the  foundation  of  the  world,  there  is  an  easy  escape 
from  this  difficulty.  They  may  know  their  reasoning  to  be 
unsound,  because  it  does  not  apply  to  anything  else  where 
they  may  test  its  validity.  They  might  just  as  well  refuse 
to  plant  as  to  pray,  on  this  ground.  God  knows  the  results 
in  the  one  case  as  much  as  in  the  other ;  and  your  sowing 
the  seed  in  expectation  of  a  crop  is  just  as  inconsistent  with 
his  foreknowledge  as  your  praying  for  rain,  or  success  in 
business,  or  the  conversion  of  a  soul,  in  expectation  of  such 
result.  Let  it  be  borne  in  mind,  that  no  such  view  of^God's 
attributes  should  ever  be  held  as  reduces  him  to  a  machine, 
an  automaton,  instead  of  a  rational  being,  thinking,  deciding, 
and  acting,  in  view  of  facts.  None  can  doubt  that  the  char- 
acters and  conduct  of  men  influence  the  purposes  of  God.  J£ 
a  man  obeys  God,  he  gives  him  the  reward  of  obedience  ;  and 
if  he  disobeys,  the  punishment  due  to  disobedience.  Then  it 
is  manifest  that  our  actions  affect  the  purposes  and  actions  of 
God  ;  and  why  not  our  worship,  our  praying,  considered  either 
as  praying  or  as  a  form  of  obedience?  Let  two  men  present 
themselves  before  God  at  the  same  moment,  —  a  blasphemer, 
and  an  humble  suppliant,  —  the  one  to  mock,  the  other  to 
pray.  Do  they  both  affect  him  alike  ?  Will  his  treatment 
of  both  be  the  same  ?     Impossible  ! 

A  kindred  objection  to  prayer,  and  almost  identical  with 
this,, is,  that  "God  is  acting  from  fixed  laws;    prayer  for 


144  SERMONS. 

rain  can  do  no  good,  because  rain  is  the  result  of  specific 
material  causes,  -which  act  by  regular  and  purely  mechanical 
forces  ;  not  depending  upon  any  present  volition  of  the  Cre- 
ator, but  merely  upon  that  original  volition  which  called  them 
into  existence."     Now,  here  it  is  assumed, 

That  no  other  than  material  causes  or  forces  can  affect 
matter.  This  is  contradicted  by  creation,  by  miracles,  and 
by  the  moral  purposes  for  which  the  universe  was  created. 

It  assumes  that  God  has  left  no  place  for  his  own  direct 
action. 

It  assumes  that  you  know  all  the  causes  of  events ;  and 
that  prayer  is  not  one. 

The  Holiness  and  Justice  of  God  too  have  discouraged  some 
from  praying.  This  I  esteem  as  really  the  greatest  difficulty 
on  the  whole  subject;  and  yet  that  which  sceptics  never 
suggest,  and  the  worldly-minded  do  not  feel.  The  other 
difficulties  exist  only  in  our  imaginations ;  this  lies  deep  in 
the  character  of  Jehovah,  and  the  principles  of  his  eternal 
kingdom.  This  is  a  difficulty  which  no  reasoning  would 
ever  have  removed,  which  no  efforts  of  man  could  ever  have 
diminished.  To  meet  and  remove  this,  the  whole  arrange- 
ment of  the  incarnation,  death,  resurrection,  and  mediation, 
of  Christ,  was  made.  To  this  I  understand  the  term  "  right- 
eous "  in  the  text  to  refer.  It  is  a  technical  term,  and  must, 
by  every  true  biblical  scholar,  be  admitted  to  mean  more 
than  a  mere  worldly  uprightness.  It  belongs  to  the  man 
■who  can  say,  "In  the  Lord  have  I  righteousness;"  who 
has  found  in  the  Lord  Jesus  the  baptism  of  a  legal  purifica- 


EFFECTUAL   PRAYEK.  145 

tioiij  extending  first  to  the  conscience,  then  to  the  heart  ; 
who,  being  freely  pardoned  for  Christ's  sake,  freely  obeys 
the  law  of  Christ ;  who  has  boldness  to  approach  the  mercy- 
seat,  but  solely  because  Christ  is  the  great  intercessor,  ever 
representing  the  believer  and  his  prayers  before  the  Father. 
On  this  Gospel-ground  the  justice  and  holiness  of  God  pre- 
sent no  obstacles  to  the  prayer  of  the  penitent  believer,  living 
in  the  righteousness  of  a  practical  obedience.  We  are  exhorted 
to  come  boldly  to  a  throne  of  grace,  not  because  we  have 
never  sinned,  but  "  because  we  have  such  a  High  Priest." 
How  beautifully  is  it  described  in  the  third  chapter  of  Zech- 
ariah !  Joshua  the  high  priest  represents,  not  the  great 
High  Priest,  but  that  royal  priesthood  of  which  the  church 
consists.  He  "was  clothed  in  filthy  garments."  That  was 
his  character  estimated  by  the  perfect  law  of  God.  And 
Satan  was  standing  at  his  right  hand  to  resist  him.  But  the 
Lord,  who  redeems  his  church  by  the  shedding  of  his  own 
blood,  said  to  those  who  stood  before  him,  "Take  away  the 
filthy  garments  from  him."  "  And  unto  him  he  said.  Behold 
I  have  caused  thine  iniquity  to  pass  from  thee ;  and  I  will 
clothe  thee  with  a  change  of  raiment.  And  I  said.  Let  them 
set  a  fair  mitre  upon  his  head.  So  they  set  a  fair  mitre  upon 
his  head,  and  clothed  him  with  garments."  That  explains 
the  manner,  and  exhibits  the  reason  why  human  prayers 
are  heard  by  him  who  is  infijiite  in  holiness.  The  Phari- 
see and  Publican,  praying  in  the  temple,  illustrate  by  contrast 
the  spirit  of  faith  and  self-righteousness.  In  fact,  it  is  a  test 
of  self-righteousness,  that  when  worldly  it  seldom  prays,  and 
13 


146  SERMONS. 

never  prays  fervently;  when  religious,    it   is   formal,  and 
never  prays  with  an  earnest  importunity  of  supplication. 

These,  we  believe,  are  the  main  theoretical  difficulties 
which  induce  us  to  relax  in  the  exercise  of  prayer.  And 
thus  far  we  have  reasoned  independently  of  the  authority  of 
the  Scriptures ;  not  that  we  imagine  there  can  be  any  other 
positive  ground  of  confidence  on  this  point,  nor  that  we  be- 
lieve the  natural  reason  is  competent  to  determine  this  great 
question.  But  we  have  desired  to  show,  simply,  that  there 
are  in  reality  no  solid  objections  to  the  doctrine  we  are  now 
exhibiting.  The  argument  from  the  Scriptures  may  be 
briefly  stated. 

II.  Prayer  will  prevail  with  God.  —  Let  us  turn  to 
1.  The  commands.  —  They  are  such  as  these:  "Pray 
without  ceasing."  "  I  will,  therefore,  that  men  pray  every- 
where." "The  end  of  all  things  is  at  hand;  be  therefore 
sober,  and  watch  unto  prayer."  "  Seek  the  Lord  while  he 
may  be  found."  Commands  of  this  nature  abound,  and  are 
addressed,  with  the  other  general  precepts  of  God's  law,  to 
all  mankind.  Their  use  as  arguments  is  indirect.  They 
prove  the  prevalence  of  prayer,  on  the  ground  of  God's 
rewarding  all  obedience  by  blessings  appropriate  to  the  form 
of  obedience.  "  The  hand  of  the  diligent  makes  rich.  Blessed 
are  they  that  hunger,  for  they  shall  be  filled."  Thus  is  there 
an  appropriateness,  in  each  reward  bestowed  by  grace,  to  the 
form  of  obedience  rewarded.  And  it  is  obvious  that  the 
appropriate  reward  to  prayer  is  a  bestowment  of  the  bless- 
ings sought  in  prayer.     There  are,  also, 


EFFECTUAL   PRAYER.  147 

2.  Promises  to  prayer,  lavished  in  prodigal  bounty,  like 
the  rich  fruits  of  the  earth,  springing  up  through  all  these 
glorious  fields  of  revealed  truth  and  grace.  —  "  Ask,  and  it 
shall  be  given  you.  Whosoever  shall  call  upon  the  name  of 
the  Lord,  shall  be  saved.  He  will  regard  the  prayer  of  the 
destitute.  He  is  a  rewarder  of  them  that  diligently  seek 
him."  On  these  no  comment  need  be  offered.  They  are 
the  promises  and  pledges  of  the  Eternal  God.  What  more 
can  human  faith  require  ? 

3.  The  doctrine  of  prayer.  —  It  is  connected  in  Scripture 
with  the  Trinity. 

The  Father  is  represented  as  on  a  throne  of  grace.  This, 
of  course,  is  figurative,  but  real.  It  is  expressive  of  his 
feelings,  arrangements,  and  moral  attitude,  toward  men. 
When  you  hear  of  the  throne  of  judgment,  you  understand 
that  our  Creator  will  deal  with  us  as  a  judge.  When  you 
read  of  the  mercy-seat,  you  may  regard  him  as  hearing 
prayer. 

The  Holy  Spirit  is  represented  as  interceding  for  us,  by 
creating  within  our  hearts  the  desire  to  pray,  and  teaching 
us  how  to  address  the  Most  High. 

The  Son  is  represented  as  interceding  in  heaven  for  us. 

This  is  the  scriptural  doctrine  of  prayer.  And  it  evi- 
dently involves  the  fact,  that  God  regards  prayer  as  an 
important  exercise  on  our  part. 

4.  The  history  of  prayer  is  among  the  most  interesting 
portions  of  the  Bible.  —  It  is  one  of  the  many  features  in 
which  that  wondrous  book  stands  entirely  apart  from  all 


148  SERMONS. 

other  books.  It  is  a  constant  display  of  the  condescension 
and  kindness  of  God.  And  it  is  well  worthy  of  remark,  that 
with  the  record  of  the  greater  part  of  the  prayers  there 
described  the  answer  to  the  prayer  is  likewise  recorded. 
Prayers,  and  answer  to  prayer,  as  much  distinguish  the  lives 
of  Abraham,  Jacob,  Moses,  and  Daniel,  as  any  other  events. 
Jacob  was  named  Israel  because  he  prevailed  in  prayer  in  a 
princely  manner.  Samuel,  Elijah,  Hezekiah,  David,  called 
on  the  Lord  for  special  blessings,  and  the  blessings  were 
granted.  The  case  of  Elijah  is  cited  in  immediate  connection 
with  the  text.  And,  to  encourage  our  faith,  it  is  mentioned 
that  he  partook  of  the  infirmities  common  to  our  nature.  All 
the  requests  made  to  Christ,  when  on  earth,  were  prayers ; 
and  none  that  was  proper  in  its  nature  was  refused.  And 
in  the  Book  of  Revelation  the  power  of  prayer  is  strikingly 
presented.  After  John  had  seen  incense  preserved  in  golden 
vials  before  the  throne,  as  a  symbol  which  taught  him  that 
prayer  long  unanswered  is  still  not  forgotten  in  heaven,  he 
then  saw  (8  :  3 — 5)  this  vision  :  "  An  angel  came  and 
stood  at  the  altar,  having  a  golden  censer ;  and  there  was 
given  unto  him  much  incense,  that  he  should  offer  it  with 
the  prayers  of  all  saints  upon  the  golden  altar  which  was 
before  the  throne.  And  the  smoke  of  the  incense,  which 
came  with  the  prayers  of  the  saints,  ascended  up  before  God 
out  of  the  angel's  hand."  Now,  these  long-remembered 
prayers  are  about  to  be  answered ;  and  what  is  the  conse- 
quence ?  They  had  prayed  for  the  overthrow  of  superstition, 
ignorance,  and  oppression.     And  now  the  angel  takes  the 


EFFECTUAL   PRAYER.  149 

censer,  and  fills  it  with  fire  from  off  the  altar,  and  casts  it 
into  the  earth :  "  And  there  were  voices,  and  thunderings, 
and  lightnings,  and  an  earthquake."  Men  everywhere  saw 
the  lightnings,  and  heard  the  thunderings ;  but  probably  few 
of  them  suspected  how  much  the  prayers  before  the  throne 
had  to  do  with  them. 

We  must  now  briefly  illustrate  the  other  principle  in  the 
text : 

III.  The  efficacy  of  prayer  is  proportioned  to  its 
FERVID  ENERGY.  —  The  Holy  Spirit  energizes  the  human 
soul  in  prayer.  He  kindles  a  holy  fire,  but  it  is  on  the  altar 
of  the  heart ;  he  produces  groanings,  but  they  are  described 
as  those  "which  cannot  be  uttered."  There  are  traces 
throughout  the  sacred  volume  of  these  deep  movements  of 
the  soul,  these  unutterable  groanings.  Then  there  are  many 
manifestations  of  the  energized  prayer  symbolically  repre- 
sented, as  in  the  wrestling  of  Jacob ;  and  directly  described, 
as  in  the  praying  of  him  whose  "  sweat  was,  as  it  were,  great 
drops  of  blood,  falling  to  the  ground,"  — who,  in  the  days  of 
his  flesh,  "offered  up  prayers  and  supplications,  with  strong 
crying  and  tears,  unto  him  that  was  able  to  save  him  from 
death." 

We  instinctively  feel  that  the  highest  degree  and  the 
strongest  expression  of  approbation  belongs  to  the  highest 
forms  of  character.  But,  as  already  noticed,  there  is  no 
more  distinctive  exhibition  of  the  highest  form  of  religious 
character  than  the  habit  of  fervent  and  earnest  prayer.  It 
is  connected  with  the  most  thorough,  conquest  of  that  enslave- 
13* 


150  SERMONS. 

ment  to  sense  wbicli  is  the  curse  and  degradation  of  man. 
It  shoAVs  a  mind  living  in  the  precincts  of  the  world  of  light. 
It  is  a  conquest  over  that  indolence  and  brutal  sluggishness 
which  mark  our  debased  enslavement  to  an  infirm  and  earth- 
born  body.  The  energetic  prayer  shows  that  the  soul  has 
caught  at  least  a  glimpse  of  the  heavenly  glory ;  breathed 
the  pure  breath  of  a  heavenly  atmosphere;  enjoyed  com- 
munion with  its  divine  Saviour;  burst,  for  a  moment,  its 
accursed  bonds ;  and  now  it  cries,  "My  soul  thirsteth  after 
God,  in  a  dry  and  thirsty  land,  where  no  waters,  be." 

Now,  there  is  an  innate  sense  of  propriety  and  justice 
which  would  incline  us  to  expect  that  God  would  put  some 
signal  mark  of  his  approbation  upon  such  a  character,  rather 
than  upon  a  worldly  and  a  half-worldly  character.  We 
should  expect  to  see  him  admit  such  a  soul  nearer  to  his 
presence  ;  giving  it  more  marks  of  his  approbation,  and  show- 
ing that  he  feels,  as  we  do,  increasing  sympathy  with  those 
who  have  increasing  attachment  to  the  objects  and  persons 
we  most  esteem.  Some  prayers  are  unseasoned  wood  on  the 
altar,  and  unprepared  incense  in  the  censer.  There  is  more 
smoke  than  fire,  —  more  simmering  and  smouldering  than 
flame.  There  have  been  no  pains  to  dry  the  wood  and  the 
frankincense,  and  hence  so  many  perform  the  service  at  the 
altar  unskilfully.  "  Let  my  prayer,"  said  one  who  knew  his 
privilege,  "  let  my  prayer  be  set  forth  before  thee  as  incense, 
and  the  lifting  up  of  my  hands  as  the  evening  sacrifice." 
There  was  something  of  real  value  burning  on  that  altar.  A 
precious  life  was  there  immolated ;  a  lamb  was  consumed ; 


EFFECTUAL   PKAYER.  151 

tlie  flame,  like  a  spirit,  lifted  up  the  sacrifice,  and  carried  it 
to  God;  the  cloud  of  incense  mounted,  and  bore  its  sweet 
odor  to  the  skies. 

Such  is  prayer,  —  "  the  effectual,  fervent  prayer,  the 
inwrought  prayer  of  the  righteous  man."  It  burns  on  the 
heart  as  God's  holy  altar ;  it  consumes  the  idols  of  the  heart : 
it  makes  a  sacrifice  of  every  interest  and  every  faculty ;  there 
is  a  life  given  up  there,  —  "a  living  sacrifice,  holy  and 
acceptable  to  God."  And  is  it  not  probable  that  God  will 
accept  such  sacrifice?  —  that  he  will  signally  express  his 
approbation  of  a  prayer  which  is  wrought  in  the  soul  by  the 
gracious  power  of  his  own  Spirit,  who  thus  "maketh  inter- 
cession for  us;  "  and  wrought  in  the  soul,  too,  by  our  own 
earnest  endeavors  to  learn  to  pray,  and  to  be  ready  to  pray  ? 
0,  yes ;  it  must  be  that  there  is  a  peculiar  power  and  preva- 
lence in  this  energized,  inwrought  prayer,  above  that  of  the 
sleepy,  careless,  half-hearted  praying  that  is  the  fruit  of  no 
effort,  neither  of  the  Holy  Spirit  nor  the  human  spirit,  but 
the  drowsy  task  performed  under  the  lash  of  conscience. 

It  must  be  that  God  has  an  ear  for  the  cry  of  the  humble, 
the  needy,  and  the  importunate,  while  "  the  rich  he  sends 
empty  away."  Look,  then,  into  the  Scriptures,  and  see  how 
this  doctrine  of  degrees  enters  even  into  this  economy  of 
grace,  where  the  idea  of  human  merit  is  discarded.  It  affects 
the  responsibilities  of  men.  "  Where  much  is  given,  much 
will  be  required."  It  affects  the  actions  of  men.  "  He  that 
soweth  bountifully  shall  reap  bountifully."  He  that  ''gained 
five  talents  "  has  "  five  cities;  "  while  he  that  gained  "  ten 


152  SERMONS. 

talents"  has  "ten  cities,"  as  his  reward.  Solomon  asked, 
earnestly  and  supremely,  for  the  best  thing,  and  it  was  given 
as  a  man  never  had  it ;  and  all  inferior  things  were  added. 
Abraham,  at  his  first  prayer  for  Sodom,  had  the  salvation  of 
the  city  promised  on  the  condition  of  there  being  fifty  right- 
eous persons  in  it ;  and  the  more  he  prayed,  the  more  he  was 
emboldened,  and  the  more  favorable  conditions  he  obtained. 
"Who  knows  but  he  might  have  saved  Sodom  for  his  own  sake 
alone,  as  an  interceding  child  of  God,  if  his  faith  had  dared 
go  so  far  ?  Christ  distinctly  shows  us  that  the  widow  gained 
her  cause  before  the  unjust  judge,  simply  through  this  feature 
of  her  prayer.  It  was  energized,  pervaded  with  desire  and 
purpose,  with  will,  and  patience,  and  power.  "  The  effectual, 
fervent  prayer  of  a  righteous  man  availeth  much." 

Then  there  is  great  folly  in  despising  prciyer.  —  Many 
persons  regard  praying  as  a  mark  of  weakness,  and  especially 
do  they  so  look  upon  men's  meeting  together  for  the  express 
purpose  of  praying.  Few,  however,  go  so  far  as  to  affirm 
that  it  is  an  indication  of  weakness  in  a  father  to  assemble 
his  family  daily  for  the  purpose  of  worshipping  God.  But  "  a 
weekly  meeting  of  men  for  prayer  is  too  insignificant  an 
employment  for  sensible  people."  Creature,  dost  thou  know 
that  thy  Creator  condescends  to  be  present  there,  and  to  hear 
with  interest  those  praises  and  supplications  ?  —  and  who  art 
thou  that  thou  shouldst  despise  it  ? 

Sinner,  thou  wilt  pray  somewhere.  The  day  is  hastening 
when  thou  wilt  call  for  help. 


EFFECTUAL   PRAYER.  153 

Proud  reasoner,  who  art  thou  that  layest  down  rules  for 
God's  intercoui'se  with  man  ? 

Prayer  is  the  highest  form  of  human  j)ower.  —  It  is 
power  over  the  Almighty,  who  says,  "  Take  hold  upon  my 
strength."  It  reaches  his  providence  and  his  Spirit.  It 
aiFects  time  and  eternity.  It  is  the  best  guardianship  we  can 
exercise  over  our  own  interests  and  families,  the  church,  the 
nation,  and  the  race.  There  have  been  no  men  of  greater 
power  than  Abraham,  Jacob,  and  Daniel.  When  you  sec  a 
mighty  orator  rising  before  a  body  of  senators,  and  rolling 
back  the  tide  of  unfriendly  feeling  which  had  been  excited 
toward  him  and  his  state,  you  regard  it  as  an  exhibition  of 
great  power.  I  will  show  you  a  greater  exercise  of  power. 
When  the  cloud  of  divine  vengeance  was  ready  to  burst  on 
guilty  Israel,  Moses  stood  alone,  and  held  it  up,  staying  those 
storms  of  wrath.     That  is  poAver  indeed. 

Here  is  indicated  the  source  of  weakness  in  the  church. 
We  have  not  yet  learned  to  pray.  I  mean,  we  do  not  exer- 
cise the  higher  kind  of  prayer,  nor  understand  the  work  of 
intercession.  Luther  used  to  pray  for  three  hours  each  day. 
When  the  Wesleys  were  on  the  field,  they  were  absorbed  in 
details  of  work ;  but  in  the  preparation  for  that  work,  they 
were  mighty  in  prayer.  Paul  prayed,  "without  ceasing,"  to 
the  close  of  his  life.  To  prevail  with  men,  we  must  prevail 
with  God,  as  Israel  did.  When  the  true  church  shall  have 
come,  nothing  will  more  distinguish  her  than  her  praying. 
When  Satan's  kingdom  is  about  to  fall,  our  present  style  of 
praying  will  have  come  to  be  regarded  as  very  infantile. 


IX. 

PARENTAL  SOLICIIJDE. 


"9nli  tijc  Jnatfr  Inas  sprnt  in  tijc  bottle,  ant)  5\)t  cast  tf)f  cljilli 
unljernnt  of  tJjc  gf)tui)0.  'antisfjetnent,  anU  sat  })tr  lio&jn  ober 
against  f)im,  a  sooli  inag  off,  as  it  incrf  a  boiDssfjot:  for  sf)c  saiS, 
Eft  mr  not  stt  tfjc  Ticat^  of  tf)e  rf)iHi.  9ln6  sfjc  sat  ofatr  against 
})im,  anl)  liftrlj  up  Ijtr  &oirt,  anli  inept."  —  Gen.  21:  15,16. 

If  the  family  of  Abraham  had  sustained  no  peculiar  rela- 
tions to  the  purposes  of  God  and  the  redemption  of  our  race, 
their  history  would  possess  a  peculiar  charm  in  other  respects. 
But  ,all  other  considerations  are  lost  in  the  moral  splendor 
■which  shines  back  on  them  from  him  who,  in  the  fulness  of 
time,  condescended  to  take  on  him  the  seed  of  Abraham. 

"  The  purpose  of  God,  according  to  election  "  stood,  "not 
of  AYorks,  but  of  him  that  calleth."  The  Messiah  should 
come  from  Abraham  ;  but  through  Isaac,  and  not  Ishmael ; 
through  Jacob,  and  not  Esau.  And  the  purposes  of  God 
embrace,  as  their  instruments,  the  whole  series  of  human 
actions  and  human  events,  without  reference  to  their  moral 
character ;  without  affecting  it,  or  diminishing,  in  the  minutest 
degree,  man's  responsibility  for  his  own  actions. 


PARENTAL   SOLICiTUDE.  155 

In  the  instance  before  U3  we  have  Sarah's  expedient,  man- 
ifesting a  want  of  faith  in  God  ;  polygamy  bringing  discord 
into  Abraham's  family;  the  impudence  of  Hagar  and  her 
boy  becoming  insupportable.  And  yet  all  this  series  of 
human  follies  executing,  in  the  end,  God's  wise  purpose,  that 
"  the  child  of  the  bond-woman  should  not  inherit  with  the 
son  of  the  promise." 

When  Abraham  found  the  house  too  strait  to  contain  both 
parties,  he  sent  Hagar  away  to  her  kindred,  in  Egypt.  And 
it  is  on  that  journey  that  we  now  find  her  in  deep  distress. 
She  seems  to  have  lost  her  way,  and  to  have  expended  her 
provisions,  and  especially  to  have  exhausted  their  supply  of 
water.  Ishmael  was  now  quite  sixteen  years  old  —  rather 
large  to  carry  ;  yet  she  seems  to  have  borne  the  burden  of 
his  fainting  frame,  after  the  parching  of  thirst  had  begun  to 
consume  his  strength.  Mr.  Belzoni  says  :  "  It  is  difficult  to 
form  a  correct  idea  of  a  desert,  without  having  been  in  one. 
It  is  an  endless  plain  of  sand  and  stones,  without  woods,  or 
shelter,  or  herbage,  or  water,  generally.  The  springs  are 
four,  six,  and  eight  days'  journey  apart.  Sometimes  a  trav- 
eller approaches  one,  and  finds  the  water  intolerably  bitter ; 
and  when  the  calamity  happens  that  the  next,  which  is  anx- 
iously sought  for,  is  found  dry,  the  misery  of  such  a  situa- 
tion cannot  well  be  described.  Many  perish  there,  victims 
of  the  most  horrible  thirst.  It  is  then  that  the  value  of  a 
cup  of  water  is  really  felt.  In  short,  to  be  thirsty  in  the 
desert  without  water,  exposed  to  the  burning  sun,  without 
shelter,  and  no  hopes  of  finding  either,  is  one  of  the  greatest 


156  SERMONS. 

sufferings  that  a  man  can  sustain.  The  eyes  grow  inflamed, 
the  tongue  and  lips  swell,  a  hollow  sound  is  heard  in  the  ear, 
which  brings  on  deafness ;  and,  if  no  water  is  found,  death 
comes  slowly  and  horribly  to  his  relief" 

In  this  situation  we  find  a  broken-hearted  widow-mother, 
and  her  boy.  Ishmael  must  die  !  That  seemed  inevitable. 
But  how  could  she  look  upon  the  noble  boy,  and  see  his 
lustrous  eye  glazed  and  glaring,  his  heaving  chest,  his  pro- 
truded tongue?  —  how  could  she  see  him  die  ?  She  could  not; 
and  so  she  carried  him  to  a  poor  bush  that  grew  solitary  in 
that  wide  waste ;  both  that  a  little  shelter  might  be  found 
from  the  withering  rays  of  the  sun,  and  that  she  might  con- 
ceal from  herself  the  signs  of  an  anguish  she  could  not  alle- 
viate, and  the  agonies  of  a  death  she  had  no  power  to  avert. 
Her  sorrow  was  right,  but  her  despair  was  sinful.  Ishmael, 
too,  was  a  child  of  promise.  His  maturity  and  manhood 
were  pledged  by  him  that  cannot  change  ;  and  his  race  is,  to 
this  day,  just  as  permanent,  though  not  so  unmixed,  as  that  of 
the  other  son  of  one  of  the  most  remarkable  men  this  world 
has  contained.  It  has  been  well  said,  it  was  despair  in  oppo- 
sition to  God's  plain  promises,  to  her  own  experience,  and  to 
fact  also.  It  was  despair,  not  only  when  a  promising  God 
was  at  hand  :  but  despair  of  water,  when  abundance  was  at 
hand.     A  fountain  was  near  ;  but  she  did  not  see  it. 

I  have  selected  this  case  as  presenting  a  subject  deeply 
interesting  to  us  all,  though  in  various  ways.  That  sub- 
ject is 


parental  solicitude.  157 

Parental  Solicitude. 

Here  it  assumed  one  form.  But  it  has  very  many,  accord- 
ing to  the  circumstances  in  which  children  may  be  placed, 
and  the  views  of  parents  concerning  them.     We  inquire, 

I.  What  are  the  proper  objects  of  parental  solic- 
itude ? 

1.  Salvation  is  supreme.  —  It  is  not  the  only  object  of 
a  parent's  anxiety,  but  the  chief.  You  need  no  words  to 
prove  it ;  yet  the  distinct  contemplation  of  it  may  be  very 
useful.  I  will  present  these  considerations  to  show  it.  The 
favor  of  God  is  above  all  favor.  One  great  object  of  every 
parent's  anxiety  is  to  secure  the  esteem,  and  even  admiration 
of  men  for  their  children.  The  success  of  a  child  at  a  school- 
examination,  or  a  college-exhibition,  appears  to  make  a  parent 
happier  than  a  much  greater  amount  of  admiration  bestowed 
upon  himself  What  parent  does  not  delight  in  the  good 
appearance,  good  behavior,  and  good  reputation  of  his  son  ? 
No  man  who  deserves  to  be  called  by  the  endearing  epithet 
of  father.  Nor  is  it  an  improper  desire  in  itself  But  it 
may  be  made  so,  by  reason  of  its  disproportion,  or  the  means 
employed  to  secure  the  result.  And  we  have  only  to  make 
the  distinct  appeal  to  a  rational  being,  to  get  the  right  an- 
swer :  which  is  better  for  your  child,  and  how  much  better, 
the  approbation  of  men,  or  the  favor  of  God  ?  In  this  world, 
in  the  day  of  judgment,  or  far  on  in  the  progress  of  our  in- 
terminable existence,  which  would  you  deliberately  choose  for 
your  child — the  admiration,  the  love  of  man,  without  God  ;  or 
14 


158  SERMONS. 

the  love  of  God,  and  with  it  that  of  all  good  beings  ?  Pa- 
rents, this  is  an  argument,  not  for  your  logical  sense,  but  for 
your  hearts ;  and  there  I  wish  to  present  it.  Would  you, 
can  you,  deliberately  lay  out  a  plan  of  education  and  life  for 
your  child,  in  which  the  goal  shall  be,  the  homage,  even  the 
love  of  his  fellow-men ;  or  should  you  choose  the  favor  of 
God,  the  Father  of  mercies,  the  love  of  Christ  the  Saviour, 
the  fellowship  of  the  Holy  Ghost  the  sanctifier  ?  But  this 
is  what  we  understand  as  the  first  element  of  salvation  :  the 
forgiving  love  of  God  in  Christ ;  a  state  of  reconciliation  and 
covenant- alliance  with  Him,  the  infinite,  the  eternal,  the 
omnipotent  Jehovah,  Jesus;  Maker,  Upholder,  Governor, 
Guide  of  all ;  Saviour  of  them  who  love  his  law,  hate  their 
sins,  and  commit  theniselves  to  him.  In  this  world  or  the 
next,  in  earth  or  heaven,  there  can  be  no  comparison.  If 
the  favor  of  either  is  to  be  sacrificed  for  that  of  the  other,  if 
"  the  friendship  of  the  world  is  enmity  with  God,"  your  child 
must  first  please  God,  and  then  whomsoever  else  he  can,  con- 
sistently with  that.  And  again,  a  holy  heart  is  the  greatest 
wealth  your  child  can  ever  possess.  Money  is  an  excellent 
thing :  and  parents  generally  prize  it  next  to  men's  esteem, 
for  their  offspring.  But  the  true  wealth  of  man  is  within 
him,  not  without  him.  God  has  pointed  us  to  the  mine  of 
true  wealth,  in  his  law  :  pure,  noble  afiections,  purposes, 
and  principles,  that  wear  not  and  waste  not,  but  grow  with 
time,  and  brighten  with  the  wear  and  tear  of  "life  ;  freshening 
in  its  very  decay,  pouring  out  their  treasures  in  proportion 
as  other  riches  ferish  in  our  grasp.     This  is  wealth :  love  to 


PARENTAL  SOLICITUDE.  159 

God,  faith  in  Jesus,  humility,  penitence,  integrity,  fortitude, 
vast  sympathies  with  God  and  his  purposes,  benevolence  to 
man,  communion  with  God  ;  these  are  the  blessings  included 
in  Christ's  salvation.  Father,  would  you  have  your  child 
pious,  or  rich,  if  he  could  bo  but  one ;  to  die  like  the  humblest 
child  of  God,  or  like  the  most  splendid  votary  of  worldly 
honors?  And  when  you  answer  that,  then  you  will  say, 
with  us,  salvation  is  the  first  object  of  parental  solicitude. 
We  have  another  reason  for  it. 

Heaven  and  hell  are  the  alternative  for  every  human 
being.  Every  child  must  live  a  probationer  here  :  must  live 
under  the  law  jyid  the  gospel;  must  die;  must  be  judged; 
must  rise  to  life,  and  joy,  and  glory  immortal,  or  sink  to 
shame,  and  darkness,  and  remorse,  and  despair,  an  outcast 
from  God,  and  holiness,  and  blessedness,  forever !  Here  is 
no  room  for  reasoning.  We  deal  with  facts,  and  must  regu- 
late our  opinions  and  actions  by  them.  Your  child  may  get 
great  possessions,  and  fore  sumptuously  every  day,  and  be 
clothed  in  fine  linen ;  and  yet,  when  he  dies,  may  lift  up  his 
eyes  in  hell,  being  tormented  in  that  flame.  He  may  have 
the  genius  of  Byron ;  but  carry  that  genius,  with  a  proud, 
selfish,  sensual  heart,  to  the  tribunal  of  his  Judge,  and  to 
the  allotments  of  eternity.  Salvation  is  first  for  adults,  for 
kings,  for  beggars,  for  learned  men,  for  fools,  for  young 
men,  young  women,  for  children.  "  One  thing  is  needful  " 
for  all. 

But,  while  we  thus  insist  on  the  superiority  and  supremacy 


160  SERMONS. 

of  salvation  as  the  object  of  parental  solicitude,  this  docs  not 
express  the  whole  truth. 

2.  Many  other  objects  harmoiiize  by  being  made  sub- 
ordinate to  that.  —  This  point  opens  to  us  a  wider  field  than 
it  would  be  possible  or  appropriate  to  the  occasion  for  us  to 
traverse.  Hagar  wanted  water  for  her  child ;  an  object,  the 
value  of  which  in  this  cooler  climate  we  may  seldom  have 
had  occasion  rightly  to  prize.  It  was  entirely  proper  for 
this  mother,  at  that  time,  earnestly  to  long  for  a  spring  of 
water.  So  there  are  a  thousand  wants  pertaining  to  man's 
complex  being  which  it  is  legitimate  to  indulge.  Concerning 
them  all,  it  is  only  important  now  to  notice  that  two  rules 
pertain  to  them.  The  first  is,  that  what  is  legitimate,  proper, 
useful,  and  healthful,  should  be  distinguished  from  all  that 
is  the  opposite.  Neither  fashion,  vanity,  pride,  nor  any  evil 
inclination  in  the  parent,  should  be  allowed  to  select  the 
objects  which  are  to  be  sought  for  the  child.  A  sound  judg- 
ment, enlightened  by  a  correct  knowledge  of  Avhat  God  has 
made  necessary  for  the  most  perfect  growth  of  the  body, 
strengthening  the  mind,  elevating  and  refining  the  heart,  and 
perfecting  the  entire  physical  and  mental  constitution  —  that 
should  determine,  with  every  fiither  and  mother,  the  very 
momentous  question,  What  shall  I  seek  for  my  child  ?  If 
anything  will  impair  the  tone  of  any  one  function  of  the 
body,  or  hinder  the  most  perfect  formation  of  the  mind  and 
the  character,  that  must  be  rejected,  no  matter  if  it  casts 
your  child  out  of  what  is  called  "  society."  If  you  were 
living  in  China,  with  your  present  knowledge  of  the  human 


PARENTAL   SOLICITUDE.  161 

frame,  you  ought  not  to  choose  to  screw  your  little  daughter's 
foot  into  an  iron  shoe,  because  it  is  genteel  or  foshionable. 
Let  her  foot  grow  as  large  as  a  comfortable  shoe  and  vigor- 
ous exercise  will  allow  it  to  grow.  And  yet,  do  not  doubt 
that  American  fashion  has  some  customs  just  as  absurd  in 
themselves  as  that  Chinese  custom.  The  other  rule  I  alluded 
to  is,  make  all  other  legitimate  objects  subordinate  to  salva- 
tion. They  are  important,  and  they  have  their  place ;  but  it 
is  a  secondary  or  a  tertiary  place.  An  enlightened  parental 
love  cannot  hesitate  to  say,  first  of  all,  my  child  must  be 
delivered  from  this  blight  and  curse  which  rests  upon  our 
race.  God  has  provided  the  means  of  such  deliverance ;  and 
the  application  of  them  is  life's  greatest  work.  Deliverance 
from  sin,  conformity  to  Christ's  character  and  Christ's  law ;  a 
life  like  Christ's ;  the  death  of  a  Christian;  the  hope,  the  treas- 
ure, the  eternity,  of  a  Christian, —  that  is  first  for  my  child. 

That  point   determined,  another  presents   itself  for  our 
consideration  : 

II.  God  has  manifested  a  supreme  regard  for  that 
FORM  OF  parental  SOLICITUDE. — We  may  go,  for  a 
moment,  beyond  the  text  before  us,  to  see  that  God  regarded 
Hagar's  anxiety  for  her  child,  though  her  want  was  but  for 
a  gushing  spring ;  though  she  sought  to  save  but  the  tem- 
poral life  of  her  boy.  It  is  sufficient  for  our  purpose  that  we 
show  that,  in  that  stupendous  arrangement  which  is  the  crown 
of  all  Jehovah's  works,  he  has  made  provision  for  children. 
So  that  when  parents  regard  the  salvation  of  their  children 
as  of  supreme  importance,  and  with  intense  solicitude,  they 
14* 


162  SERMONS. 

may  be  assured  that  he  who  pointed  Hagar  to  the  living 
fountain ;  nay,  who  furnished  it,  has  regarded  that  object  as 
that  parent  does.     Observe, 

1.  The  history  of  clnldren  as  presented  by  the  ^crijj- 
tures.  —  A  few  instances  from  many  will  answer  our  purpose. 

When  God  makes  promise  to  Abraham,  he  embraces  his 
children  in  it.  And  the  reason  is  incidentally  presented  on 
one  occasion.  "I  know  him,"  says  Jehovah,  "that  he  will 
command  his  children  and  his  household  after  him,  and  they 
shall  keep  the  way  of  the  Lord,  to  do  justice  ahd  jutlgment, 
that  the  Lord  may  bring  upon  Abraham  that  which  he  has 
spoken  of  him."  This  manifests  God's  interest  in  the  pious 
training  of  children.  Then  see  the  honor  put  upon  children 
piously  educated,  as  Moses  w^as,  as  Joseph  was,  as  Samuel 
was.  What  honors  came  on  those  men,  in  building  up  the 
church  of  God,  above  all  the  honors  of  a  worldly  kind  that 
the  most  ambitious  parent  ever  dreamed  of  for  his  child  ? 
Then  see  the  success  of  efforts  at  religious  traininn;  in  John 
the  Baptist,  not  to  say  in  Christ,  and  in  Timothy.  And 
contrast  with  this  the  sad  results  of  neglecting  this  supremely 
important  duty,  as  in  the  case  of  Eli's  children,  and  in  every 
age  of  Israel's  degeneracy.  There  the  fatal  decline  began : 
parents  became  worldly,  and  then  the  children  ungodly. 

But  there  is  a  stronger  view  of  the  case  in  another  fact. 

2.  God  has  arranged  his  covenant  of  grace  with  refer- 
ence to  the  salvation  of  children.  —  It  appears  under  the 
Old  Testament  in  two  distinct  forms.  The  one  was  the  ap- 
plication of  the  seal  of  the  covenant  to  children.     The  other 


PARENTAL   SOLICITUDE.  163 

was  a  specific  requirement  that  they  should  be  thoroughly 
brought  under  the  influence  of  God's  law  and  government. 
I  need  not  here  expand.     Then,  in  the  New  Testament  it  is 
to  us  perfectly  clear  that  the  same  great  principle  is  con- 
tinued, because  our  Lord  treated  children  as  if  they  had  the 
same  relation  to  his  kingdom  under  the  New  Testament  as 
under  the  Old.     The  disciples  made  a  mistake  a  little  differ- 
ent in  form  from  that  of  many  in  our  day,  but  in  spirit  the 
same.     They  thought  that  the  nature  of  this  dispensation 
was  such  that  little  children  had  nothing  to  do  with  it.     But 
they  were  in  error.     The  Redeemer  said,  "Of  such  is  the 
kingdom  of  heaven."     Now,  some   think  the  ordinance  of 
baptism  desecrated  when  applied  to  an  inflmt.     I  must  say 
it  of  them  as  beloved  brethren,  their  notion  of  baptism  is 
superstitious.     Does  it  desecrate  the  ordmance  when  they 
make  a  mistake,  and  apply  it  to  an  unconverted  man  ?     Cer- 
tainly not.     And  is  not  the  consecration  of  childhood  to  God 
by  believing  parents  an  act  as  holy  as  the  application  of 
water  ?     Is  it  not  a  holy  thing  to  proclaim  to  the  world,  and 
especially  to  godly  parents,  that  God  is   in  covenant  with 
them  for  their  children  as  well  as  themselves  ?     Or  do  they 
believe  that   God  is  in  reality  no  more  to  the  offspring  of 
them  that  love  him,  than  to  the   offspring  of  the  world? 
And  if  he  is,  why  may  he  not  express  it  now  by  a  covenant 
seal,  just  as  he  used  to  do?     Circumcision   and   religious 
instruction  were  once  the  two  great  expressions  of  God's 
regard  for  the  chief  solicitude  of  pious  parents.     Now  it  is 
baptism  and  instruction.     It  used  to  be  that  when  any  came 


164  SERMONS. 

into  the  church,  they  and  their  households'  received  the 
bloody  seal.  And  then  their  parents  were  required  to  teach 
them  the  works  and  the  laws  of  God  incessantly  and  assidu- 
ously. Now,  when  Lydia  or  the  jailer  enters  the  church, 
they  and  their  households  are  baptized  ;  and  then  the  parents 
are  enjoined  to  train  their  children  ' '  in  the  nurture  and 
admonition  of  the  Lord." 

Thus  it  is  manifested  that  our  God  regards  with  supreme 
interest  the  solicitude  of  parents  for  the  spiritual  and  eternal 
welfiire  of  their  children. 

This  subject  possesses  a  great  and  manifold  interest 
for  the  church  of  God.  —  She  loves  the  souls  of  all,  and 
feels  a  tender  concern  for  the  young.  She  looks  for  the 
perpetuating  of  truth  and  righteousness  to  the  generation 
that  is  now  advancing  to  maturity.  "Wo  must  die,  and  lay 
down  all  these  sacred  interests,  these  holy  enterprises.  We 
sliall  leave  this  sacred  cause  in  an  enemy's  country.  Who 
will  take  it  up.  and  carry  it  forward  ?  With  deep  solicitude 
we  turn  to  the  children  we  see  around  us.  And  what  a 
relief  to  our  fears  and  anxieties  to  know  that  God's  people 
are  trying  to  bring  them  to  love  the  Saviour,  and  that  God 
promises  to  bless  their  efforts  !  But  there  is  more  than  that. 
These  children  of  the  church  are  related  to  the  church.  We 
are  as  yet  formalists  in  the  baptism  of  infants.  It  means 
more  than  the  church  of  our  day  sees  in  it.  It  has  none  of 
the  absurdity  of  water-regeneration,  but  it  has  the  deep  sig- 
nificancy  of  a  spiritual  relation.  There  abides  on  the  church 
a  most  solemn  responsibility  in  regard  to  baptized  children, 


PARENTAL   SOLICITUDE.  165    > 

as  there  exists  between  them  and  the  church  a  most  tender 
and  solemn  relation.  We  now  content  ourselves  by  laying 
it  on  parents  and  on  the  Sunday-school  to  teach  the  children. 
But  it  is  not  enough.  The  church  must  yet  take  up  this 
subject,  and  understand  it,  and  treat  her  infant  members  as 
God  designed  they  should  be.  We  are  often  looking  vaguely 
for  a  great  revival,  and  yet  shrinking  from  the  detail  of  daily 
duties.     But  I  may  not  now  tarry  to  specify. 

Parents^  this  subject  is  emjihatically  yours.  —  And  to 
you  I  dedicate  it.  How,  my  beloved  friends,  who  are  of  the 
congregation,  and  not  of  the  church,  how  have  you  heard  all 
this  ?  Do  you  believe,  with  me,  that  piety  in  the  hearts  of 
your  dear  children  is  their  first  necessity  ?  Do  you  want 
them  housed  in  God's  precious  ark  before  the  storm  arises? 
Do  you  not  want  them  armed  with  God's  panoply  for  life's 
great  conflict?  But  you,  dear  friends,  are  responsible  for 
this  result.  You  acknowledge  yourselves  responsible  for 
their  moral  characters.  You  will  be  greatly  mortified  if 
they  fail  in  that ;  and  why  not  forever  reproach  yourselves  if 
they  come  short  of  heaven  ?  Depend  upon  it,  you  have  not 
surveyed  your  whole  responsibilities,  if  you  do  not  feel  this. 
0,  in  the  name  of  him  who  said,  "  Suffer  the  little  children  to 
come  unto  me,"  I  would  say,  hinder  them  no  longer  by  your 
indifierence  and  unbelief  Look  on  them.  Some  of  them 
have  been  sick,  and  they  are  raised  again.  Look  on  them  : 
they  must  go  forth  and  do  battle  on  this  world's  great  field. 
Look  on  them  :  they  must  die ;  they  w\ant  Christ  then.  0, 
show  them  the  way  yourselves ;  say  to  them,   "Come,  dear 


166  SERMONS. 

children,  follow  me ;  I  am  going  to  commit  my  soul  to  Jesus, 
and  to  follow  him." 

Parents  in  the  church,  how  many  are  in  your  families  of 
whom  you  cannot  believe  that  they  love  God  ?  Here  is 
obligation,  and  here  is  encouragement  for  you.  In  baptism 
you  acknowledged  the  Lord's  right  to  your  children,  and 
your  obligations  to  seek  their  salvation  supremely.  And  in 
baptism  he  presented  himself  as  having  all  power  in  heaven 
and  earth  to  save.  And  you  must  not  undertake  tliis  work 
as  if  he  had  no  part  in  it.  Give  him  his  place,  and  take 
your  own.  I  will  suggest  where  I  think  the  failure  is  with 
sincere  believers.  Some  do  not  establish  their  authority. 
There  Eli  failed.  They  cannot  maintain  the  laws  of  the 
house  in  all  things.  It  is  to  be  feared  that  the  children  of 
such  parents  will  not  be  converted.  Some,  on  the  contrary, 
make  it  all  authority.  The  parental  office  has,  indeed,  an 
under  stratum  of  authority ;  on  that  everything  stands.  But 
the  visible,  sensible  element  is  mutual  confidence.  Encourage 
your  children  to  talk  out  their  hearts  to  you,  and  let  not  the 
first  intelligence  of  their  seriousness  come  to  you  from 
strangers.  Adapt  yourselves  to  their  peculiar  temperaments. 
It  is  worth  a  year's  study  of  a  chikVs  temperament  to  know 
how  to  approach  it,  and  gain  its  confidence,  and  make  it  feel 
at  ease  with  you.  Be  deeply  pious,  and  then  be  natural  in 
dealing  with  children.  Then  feel  your  utter  insufficiency, 
and  your  dependence  on  God.  And  of  this  feeling  prayer  is 
the  natural  expression. 

And  what  an  interest  have  the  young  in  this  subject !  — 


PARENTAL  SOLICITUDE.  167 

Some  of  you  are  not  baptized.  There  is  a  loss  to  you  in  this. 
But  let  it  only  make  you  the  more  earnest  to  establish  a 
covenant  with  God  for  yourselves.  He  does  visit  the  iniqui- 
ties of  parents  on  children,  their  unbelief  and  their  disobe- 
dience to  his  commands.  But  he  makes  a  way  of  escape  by 
personal  repentance  and  faith.  Some  of  you  have  been  bap- 
tized in  the  holy  name  of  the  Father,  Son,  and  Spirit.  Do 
you  know,  dear  children  and  young  friends,  that  the  eternal 
God  has  thus  showed  his  kind  regard  for  you  ?  That  is  what 
your  baptism  means.  Think  of  your  name,  —  John,  or  Eliza, 
or  George,  or  Mary ;  it  has  been  associated  with  the  holy 
name  of  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost,  in  an  ordinance 
of  God's  appointment.  And  are  you  growing  up  regardless 
not  only  of  the  anxieties  of  your  pious  father  or  mother,  but 
also  of  the  kindness  of  God  ?  When  do  you  expect  to  take 
the  vows  of  God  upon  yourselves ;  to  return  to  your  covenant 
God,  and  seek  his  great  salvation  ?  Will  you  think  seriously 
what  your  being  baptized  means  ?  Ask  your  parents.  Come 
and  ask  your  pastor.     But,  above  all,  ask  God. 


X. 

CHILDHOOD   PRAISING  THE  LORD. 


"aiti  tufjtn  tfje  c^icf  priests  anij  scriliCB  safca  tf)f  tnonlierful  ti)ings  t^at 
f)«  til,  anil  tf)c  tfjCItiren  crntnfl  in  tijc  tcmplr,  anli.  saging,  filosanna 
to  t})e  son  of  ©a&ilj;  ti)Ea  fiofr?  sort  Sispltaselj;  anS  saiU  unto  i)im, 
l^earest  tf)ou  fefjatt^fSf  saj?  gnb  3csus  saitfj  unto  tftfni.gra: 
f)abe  J1C  nefacr  rtati,  ©ut  of  l\)t  moutfja  of  fiafirs  anli  sucklings  tfjou 
ftast  ptrftctcli  p  t a i s E  ?"  —  Matt.  21:  15,  16. 

We  shall  never  grow  weary  of  contemplating  the  earthly 
life  of  Christ.  It  is  not  so  much  the  showing  forth  of  Divine 
goodness  and  power,  as  the  concealment  of  them  under  the 
limited  forms  of  human  nature.  Yet  this  concealment  is 
manifestation.  Glory  divine  comes  forth  in  human  speech 
and  deed  everywhere.  The  miraculous  deeds  of  our  Saviour 
were  not  efforts,  nor  exhibitions  ;  they  were  never  advertised 
beforehand.  No  high-wrought  expectation  was  produced  in 
the  public  mind,  such  as  impostors  and  Satan's  wonder- 
workers always  aim  to  create.  They  were  performed,  not  as 
an  end,  but  rather  as  incidental  to  his  great  work.  They  are 
signs  that  mankind  would  naturally  and  properly  expect  from 
one  of  such  a  nature,  coming  on  such  an  errand.  His  spirit- 
ual work  being  the  greatest  departure  from  all  that  we  call 
laws   of   nature,  it  is  natural  to  suppose  that  in  outward 


CHILDHOOD  PRAISING  THE  LORD.        169 

actions  he  would  manifest  the  same  departure  from  the  ordi- 
nary course  of  providence. 

He  had  just  come  into  Jerusalem  attended  by  the  mani- 
festation of  a  more  open  triumph  than  he  had  ever  before 
permitted  the  people  to  display.  He  had  entered  the  temple 
the  second  time  as  its  lord,  expelling  them  that  defiled  it. 
The  diseased  and  the  maimed  had  there  gathered  around 
him,  and  he  had  healed  them. 

And  now  we  are  to  witness  an  instance  of  the  contrasted 
eiFects  produced  in  different  persons  by  this  display  of  his 
divine  goodness  and  power.  His  benignant  form  was  seen 
rising  slowly  up  the  great  steps  of  the  eastern  gate.  An 
eager,  rushing  throng  were  pressing  along  on  his  path,  pre- 
ceding and  following,  and  gathering  as  closely  to  his  side  as 
respect  for  his  person  would  allow.  The  tide  of  popular  feel- 
ing had  long  been  swelling,  and  had  now  reached  a  height 
where  it  must  burst  through  its  barriers.  He  enters  the 
temple,  its  King  and  Lord.  He  commands  the  traffickers 
and  brokers  to  quit  its  hallowed  premises,  and  find  other 
places  more  suited  to  the  employments  of  commerce.  And 
then,  as  if  to  satisfy  any  honest  inquiry  concerning  his 
authority,  he  turned  on  the  right  and  on  the  left,  wherever 
faith  had  brought  a  poor  cripple  or  a  blind  man,  to  lay  them 
at  his  feet,  and  gave  them  sight  and  soundness.  This  only 
served  to  swell  still  higher  the  tide  of  devout  and  joyous 
feeling  in  some  hearts,  and  to  increase  the  hatred  and  envy 
in  others.  For  many  months  now  he  had  been  going  about 
among  the  people  of  that  nation,  speaking  as  never  man 
15 


170  SERMONS. 

spake,  exhibiting  a  control  over  the  powers  of  nature  as 
■wonderful  in  its  simplicity  and  ease  of  manifestation,  as  it 
was  beneficent  in  its  results.  The  land  was  full  of  the  fame 
of  him.  Travellers  from  one  part  of  the  country  carried  the 
report  to  another  of  his  mighty  works,  only  to  be  told  of 
similar  deeds  among  those  to  whom  they  brought  the  report. 
Men  were  grouped  in  the  places  of  public  resort  to  describe 
what  they  had  seen  and  heard.  Children  sat  entranced  as 
their  mothers  described  the  gentle,  holy,  majestic  being  that 
had  come  among  them  to  scatter  blessings.  Whenever  they 
felt  themselves  to  be  safe  from  the  frown  of  scribe  and 
priest,  the  people  dared  to  believe,  and  say,  "This  is  the 
promised  Son  of  David,  Zion's  king,  her  long-expected  Mes- 
siah." And  what  parents  dared  to  say  under  shelter  of  the 
domestic  roof,  the  children  dared  to  shout  within  the  hallowed 
walls  of  the  temple.  Eeholding  the  Lord  surrounded  with 
the  grateful  group  to  whom  he  had  just  restored  their  long- 
lost  powers  of  sight  and  walking,  their  enthusiasm  could 
contain  itself  no  longer ;  and,  forming  themselves  into  an 
impromptu  volunteer  choir,  they  made  the  temple  resound 
with  an  anthem  it  had  never  heard  before.  Catching  the 
strain  which  the  multitude  had  poured  forth  on  the  way  to 
the  temple,  they  echoed  its  burden  —  Hosanna  to  the  Son  of 
David. 

Whatever  the  Lord  did  and  said  in  Jerusalem,  publicly, 
was  in  sight  and  hearing  of  some  of  the  rulers  of  the  church. 
The  Scribes  and  Pharisees  had  witnessed  this  wonderful  pro- 
cession, when  Jesus  rode  on  an  ass'  colt  to  the  temple  amid 


CHILDHOOD  PKAISING  THE  LORD.        171 

the  acclamations  of  the  people,  who  strewed  their  cloaks  and 
branches  of  trees  in  his  path.  They  had  seen  him  enter  the 
temple  with  the  authoritative  air  of  its  proprietor,  and  with 
resistless  command  bid  them  who  profaned  its  courts  to  quit 
the  sacred  premises.  They  witnessed  these  wonderful  works 
of  mercy  and  authority.  And  now,  to  crown  all,  they  heard 
the  hosannas  of  the  children.  Their  envy  and  hatred  could 
bear  no  more.  But  what  resort  or  relief  had  they  ?  There 
was  probably  no  statute  against  these  proceedings  of  Christ, 
or  those  of  the  people.  All  they  could  do  was,  to  appeal  to 
the  Lord  himself,  and  ask  him  if  he  heard  these  things. 
This  is  as  much  as  to  say :  "  Can  you  possibly  sanction  this 
fanaticism?  —  senseless  children  calling  you  the  Son  of  David, 
and  crying  to  you  for  mercy ;  thus  really  making  you  to  be 
the  Messiah !  " 

To  this  remonstrance  the  Lord  replied  simply  by  a  quota- 
tion from  their  own  Scripture,  taking  it  from  the  Greek 
version,  with  which  they  were  familiar:  "Have  ye  never 
read"  that  eighth  Psalm?  Yes,  they  had  read  it;  but  had 
never  stopped  to  discover  that  that  verse  contained  a  principle 
which  undermined  their  whole  system  of  religion.  "  Out  of 
the  mouth  of  babes  and  sucklings  thou  hast  perfected  praise." 
He  had  before  driven  out  the  wealthy  abusers  of  the  temple, 
that  he  might  welcome  to  it  the  poor  and  suffering.  Now  he 
takes  part  with  the  children  against  the  scribes.  And  never 
were  children  better  employed ;  and  never  children  on  earth 
more  honored  than  these,  by  the  Lord's  commendation  of 
them.     Some  suppose  that  David  composed  the  eighth  Psalm 


172  SERMONS. 

in  reference  to  those  acclamations  of  the  women  and  chil- 
dren which  greeted  his  triumph  over  Goliah,  and  which  so 
provoked  the  envy  of  Saul.  If  so,  there  was  a  peculiar  force 
in  its  being  quoted  on  this  occasion.  Be  that  as  it  may,  it 
presents  to  us  the  Saviour  and  the  Gospel  in  a  very  inter- 
esting and  instructive  light,  to  hear  from  his  lips  this 
commendation  of  the  praises  and  homage  of  children,  by  a 
quotation  from  the  Old  Testament. 

The  first  lesson  we  may  draw  from  it  is  that 
I.  The  Gospel  exhibits  the  condescension  and 
GENTLENESS  OF  THE  Saviour.  —  Parents,  almost  without 
exception,  have  loved  their  own  children.  But  children,  as  a 
portion  of  the  human  family,  have  not  generally  been  re- 
garded with  much  interest ;  and  particularly  as  religious 
beings,  or  in  their  spiritual  relations.  These  priests  and 
scribes  probably  supposed  that  children  could  not  know 
enough  to  be  religious ;  and  especially  to  form  an  accurate 
judgment  of  the  claims  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth  to  be  the  Mes- 
siah. And  never,  I  believe,  except  under  the  Jewish  and  the 
Christian  dispensations,  has  any  prominence  been  given  to 
the  religious  culture  of  children,  or  much  regard  paid  to 
their  religious  character  and  worship.  The  source  of  this 
indifference  is  the  radical  misapprehension  of  the  nature  of 
religion.  While  it  contains  a  system  of  truth  which  requires 
the  fullest  exercise  of  the  most  cultivated  mind  for  its  com- 
prehension, it  at  the  same  time  consists,  as  a  practical  prin- 
ciple of  character  and  action,  in  feelings  and  purposes  to 
which  a  little  child  is  just  as  competent  as  a  man;   and  to 


CHILDHOOD    PRAISING   THE   LORD.  173 

the  existence  and  exercise  of  which,  childhood  presents  fewer 
obstacles  than  manhood. 

Now,  if  we  look  at  the  systems  of  philosophy  which  men 
have  invented,  the  arts  and  sciences  which  have  given  splen- 
dor to  the  states  that  possessed  them,  —  if  we  look  at  the  men 
who  are  aspiring  to  be  the  world's  admiration,  or  the  world's 
beneflictors,  —  rarely  shall  we  find  them  turning  their  atten- 
tion and   their   efforts   to   human  nature  in  its  period  of 
weakness  and  ignorance;  much  less  glorying  in  their  special 
adaptedness  to  children,  and  counting  among  their  noblest 
trophies  the  children  they  have  brought  under  the  control  of 
their  systems.     And  even  now  you  shall  find  the  majority 
of  men  count,  as  of  little  worth,  the  manifestation  of  religious 
sentiments  in  children.    Turn,  then,  from  all  this  haughtiness 
of  the  human  heart,  all  this  loftiness  of  pretension,  111  this 
false  dignity,  and  see  the  Son  of  God  before  and  after  his 
incarnation,  in  his  treatment  of  children,  and  his  estimate  of 
their  religious  feelings  and  services. 

1.  They  are  prominently  noticed  by  their  Creator  and 
Saviour,  as  objects  of  religions  interest.  —  A  cs^m^l  reader 
might  pass  by  this  feature  of  the  Saviour's  character.  But 
it  presents  itself  with  sufficient  frequency  to  make  a  strong 
impression,  if  we  observe  the  cases.  He  not  only  compares 
those  who  believe  in  him  to  children,  and  his  affection  for 
them  to  a  parent's  love  ;  but  he  also  rebukes  with  indignation 
those  who  thought  it  could  be  a  matter  of  no  importance  that 
they  should  be  brought  to  receive  his  Blessing,  declaring  that 
there  were  already  many  such  in  the  kingdom  he  came  to  estab- 
15* 


174  SERMONS. 

lish.  He,  "who  never  performed  an  idle  ceremony,  spake  an 
unmeaning  word,  nor  pretended  to  anything  he  did  not  truly 
feel,  took  little  children  in  his  arms,  and  blessed  them.  And 
was  there  ever  a  sublimer  spectacle  than  when  Redeeming 
Love  there  stood,  enfolding  in  its  tender  embrace  poor,  sin- 
ful, sorrowing,  perishing  human  nature  in  its  feeblest  estate  ! 
He  was  not  unobservant  of  their  plays  in  the  market-place, 
as  he  passed  through  their  thronged  streets ;  and  he  made 
their  games  and  their  childish  complainings  the  ground  of 
illustrating  the  inconsistency  of  that  generation  of  men,  in 
their  treatment  of  John  and  himself  When  he  would  rebuke 
the  ambition  and  envy  of  his  disciples,  a  little  child  was  the 
text  from  which  his  sermon  was  preached  ;  and  some  of  the 
very  characteristics  which  distinguish  childhood  from  man- 
hood were  made  the  types  of  that  piety  he  commended.  And 
in  the  case  we  are  considering,  he  accepted  from  children  the 
praises  which  gave  to  him  divine  honors,  when  men  counted 
his  pretensions  blasphemous. 

Notice,  too,  a  still  more  impressive  fact.  When  the  Son 
of  God  Avas  to  become  a  man,  he  chose  not  to  enter,  like 
Adam,  at  once  into  the  possession  of  manhood. 

2.  He  became  a  child.  —  I  know  not  how  to  speak  on  the 
infinite  condescension  and  goodness  displayed  in  this  fact. 
But  it  is  one  on  which  our  minds  may  with  profit  dwell  fre- 
quently and  long.  "Why,"  says  Jeremy  Taylor,  '-should 
Christ  be  an  infant,  but  that  infants  should  receive  the  crown 
of  their  age,  the  purification  of  their  stained  nature,  the 
sanctification  of  their  person,  and  the  saving  of  their  souls, 


CHILDHOOD  PRAISING  THE  LORD.        175 

by  their  infant  Lord,  anil  elder  brother  ?  "  "  Being  found 
in  fashion  as  a  man,  he  humbled  himself."  "  Because  the 
children  had  flesh  and  blood,  he  likewise  took  part  of  the 
same."  Herein  was  love.  Man  begins  his  existence  in  a 
feebleness,  a  dependence,  a  subjection,  in  which  he  is  inferior 
to  plants  and  brutes.  To  that  feebleness,  dependence,  and 
subjection,  to  all  that  inferiority,  the  Lord  of  glory  stooped 
when  he  would  save  us.  There  are  trials,  sorrows,  pains, 
and  fears,  incidental  to  childhood.  These  our  Kedeemer 
would  know  by  experience,  and  therefore  "  he  was  born  of 
woman,"  and  "wrapped  in  swaddling-clothes;"  was  "subject 
to  his  parents,"  and  "  waxed  in  wisdom  and  in  stature,"  to 
boyhood,  and  to  manhood.  Thus  has  he  sanctified  every 
position  of  our  fallen  nature,  from  its  cradle  to  its  grave. 
Thus  has  God  exhibited  his  condescension,  and  the  gentleness 
of  his  love,  to  a  degree  which  will  forever  grow  upon  our 
admiring  vision,  but  never  be  fully  understood  by  us  or  any 
other  creatures. 

His  condescension  and  gentleness  are  further  seen  in 
3.  Tliepi-ovisioiis  made  in  the  Gospel  fo?^  the  spiritual 
benefit  of  children.  —  Their  position  in  the  system  of  re- 
demption is  really  a  prominent  one.  There  are  ordinances 
constructed  specifically  in  reference  to  them.  Under  the 
Old  Testament  there  was  a  sign  and  seal  of  their  covenant 
relation  to  God ;  and  under  the  New  Testament  is  baptism 
their  right,  having  the  same  signification  and  end.  The  Chris- 
tian govern&ent  of  parents  is  one  of  God's  chief  ordinances 
for  the  education  and  discipline  of  children.     Within  the 


176  SERMONS. 

sacred  enclosure  of  the  family  they  are  required  to  ' '  bring 
them  up  in  the  nurture  and  admonition  of  the  Lord."  And 
the  obligations  laid  on  parents  are  among  the  weightiest  which 
men  are  called  to  bear.  "  I  know  Abraham,"  said  Jehovah, 
when  assigning  a  reason  why  he  should  be  peculiarly  blessed, 
"that  he  will  command  his  household  after  him."  And  on  Eli 
fell  the  heaviest  judgments,  because  he  had  deprived  his  chil- 
dren of  the  benefits  of  a  faithful  parental  government.  Such 
is  Jehovah's  care  of  these  tenderest  years  of  man's  earthly 
existence.  And  when  the  canon  of  Old  Testament  prophecy 
is  to  be  closed,  we  are  informed  that  the  sign  of  the  brighter 
day  about  to  dawn  at  length  upon  this  blighted  earth  is  this : 
"  the  hearts  of  the  fathers  shall  be  turned  to  the  children." 
The  introduction  of  that  day  will  witness  a  new,  profound, 
and  enlightened  Christian  interest  in  the  young. 

We  further  see  that  much  of  the  instruction  of  the  Scrip- 
tures is  designed  for  children.  "  Secret  things,"  saj'-s  Moses, 
"belong  to  the  Lord  our  God;  but  the  things  that  are 
revealed,  to  us  and  our  children,  that  we  may  do  all  the  works 
of  his  law."  The  Israelites  were  enjoined  to  repeat  to  their 
children  the  history  of  God's  providence,  his  laws,  and  his 
promises.  And  this  was  not  to  be  an  occasional  exercise,  for 
it  is  enjoined  upon  parents  thus  :  "  Thou  shalt  teach  them 
diligently  to  thy  children."  And  then  they  were  enjoined 
to  place  them  within  reach  of  their  children,  and  to  make  a 
large  part  of  the  family  conversation  turn  on  these  sublime 
themes. 

We  find,  moreover,  that  special  commands,  counsels,  warn- 


CHILDHOOD  PRAISING  THE  LORD.        177 

ings,  and  encouragements,  are  addressed  to  children.  One 
commandment  out  of  the  ten  in  the  decalogue  is  peculiarly 
the  child's  commandment ;  and  frequently  is  it  enjoined  in  a 
separate  form,  "  Children,  obey  your  parents  in  the  Lord." 
The  book  of  Proverbs  may  be  called  emphatically  the  young 
man's  own  book.  With  the  tenderness  of  a  human  fother, 
God  there  warns  and  remonstrates,  and  allures  to  wisdom's 
path,  by  the  most  beautiful  and  precious  promises. 

There  is  also  a  place  assigned  to  children  in  the  worship 
of  God.  Under  the  Old  Testament  they  were  to  be  twice 
presented  to  God  in  their  inflmcy.  Then,  at  twelve  years  of 
age,  the  boys  were  led  up  to  the  great  festival  of  the  Pass- 
over, when  they  were  to  participate  with  their  parents  and 
countrymen;  and  special  pains  were  required  in  explain- 
ing to  them  the  meaning  of  the  ceremonies.  When  the 
enraptured  Palmists  is  summoning  the  universal  choir  to  cel- 
ebrate the  praises  of  the  Lord,  he  calls  on  •'  old  men  and 
children  "  together.  When  Joel  summons  the  sinful  nation 
to  assemble  themselves  with  fasting  and  prayer,  he  thus 
issues  his  proclamation  :  "  Blow  the  trumpet  in  Zion,  sanc- 
tify a  fast,  call  a  solemn  assembly,  gather  the  people,  sanc- 
tify the  congregation,  assemble  the  elders,  gather  the  chil- 
dren, and  those  that  suck  the  breasts."  Why  these  little 
creatures  yet  without  intelligence?  Because  "out  of  the 
mouths  of  babes  and  sucklings  thou  perfectest  praise." 

And,  again :  Ave  find  that  special  notice  is  taken  of  their 
piety ;  and  biographical  sketches  of  children  are  frequent  in 
the  Bible.      Moses'   birth  and  early  vicissitudes,  Joseph's 


178  SERMONS, 

pietj  and  trials,  are  sketched  with  the  most  entire  simplicity ; 
and  yet  they  have  awaVened,  for  more  than  three  thousand 
years,  the  most  lively  interest  in  the  minds  of  children  of  the 
JcAvish  and  of  every  Christian  nation.  The  early  piety  of 
Samuel,  of  David,  of  Obadiah,  of  Daniel,  of  John,  and  of 
Timothy,  are  all  deemed  worthy  of  mention  or  description  in 
the  sacred  records. 

This  feature  of  the  Gospel  appears  in  another  form  also. 

4.  GorTs  esteem  for  the  piety  and  icorsliip  of  children 
is  particularly  expressed.  — We  are  struck  with  the  man- 
ner in  which  they  arc  noticed.  There  are  at  least  three 
emphatic  forms  in  which  this  is  showed.  The  praises  of  little 
children  are  joined  with  the  sublime  chorus  of  creation.  "  0 
Lord,  our  Lord,  how  excellent  is  thy  name  in  all  the  earth  ! 
who  hast  set  thy  glory  above  the  heavens."  Here,  the 
Psalmist,  full  of  the  magnificent  conceptions  that  he  evi- 
dently possessed,  even  in  that  age,  of  the  grandeur  as  well  as 
beauty  of  the  heavens,  interrupts  his  description  of  the  glory 
of  the  Creator  as  manifested  in  the  heavens,  and  adds,  "  Out 
of  the  mouth  of  babes  hast  thou  ordained  strength."  Then 
he  resumes  his  theme:  "When  I  consider  tlie  heavens,  the 
work  of  thy  fingers,  what  is  man  !  "  Another  emphatic 
passage  is  that  in  which  it  is  mentioned,  the  Lord  "rejoiced 
in  spirit."  I  do,  not  remember  that  it  is  said  on  any  other 
occasion  ;  and  tliat  occasion  the  sacred  narrator  thus  describes  : 
"Li  that  hour  Jesus  rejoiced  in  spirit,  and  said,  I  thank 
thee,  0  Father,  Lord  of  heaven  and  earth,  that  thou  hast 
hid  these  things  from  the  wise  and  prudent,  and  hast  revealed 


CHILDHOOD   PRAISING  THE  LORD.  179 

them  unto  babes ;  even  so,  Father  ;  for  so  it  seemed  good  in 
thy  sight."  I  do  not  question  that  he  uses  the  word  "  babes  " 
here  figuratively,  as  descriptive  of  his  disciples.  But  this  is 
the  precise  point  I  tim  aiming  to  show  *.  that  it  is  not  the 
might  of  human  intellect  and  extent  of  acquisition  that  God 
supremely  regards  in  man  as  a  religious  being,  but  it  is  by 
retaining  the  simplicity  of  purpose,  the  self-distrust,  the  sense 
of  dependence,  the  docility,  the  susceptibility  and  receptivity 
of  right  impressions,  which  distinguish  childhood,  that  man  is 
best  fitted  to  serve  God.  So  that  whenever  a  child  does  exhibit" 
piety,  or  sincerely  praise  God,  his  Creator,  so  far  from  despis- 
ing it,  rejoices  in  it.  It  may  seem  to  man  a  small  thing  that 
a  little  child  bows  his  knees  and  calls  on  his  heavenly  Father, 
thanking  him  for  giving  him  a  good  earthly  father  and 
mother,  and  asking  for  a  good  heart ;  but  he  whose  tlioughts 
are  as  high  above  ours  as  the  heavens  above  the  earth, 
regards  it  not  so.  It  may  seem  to  man  a  matter  of  little 
moment  that  two  or  three  children  should  meet  and  talk  of 
Jesus  and  heaven,  and  praise  him  together;  but  Jesus 
regards  it  otherwise. 

The  other  emphatic  notice  of  children's  worship  is  in  that 
expression  in  the  eighth  psalm  :  "Out  of  the  mouths  of 
babes  and  sucklings  hast  thou  ordained  strength;  "  or  (as 
rendered  in  the  Septuagint,  and  by  our  Saviour)  •'  perfected 
praise,  because  of  thine  enemies ;  that  thou  mightest  still  the 
enemy  and  the  avenger."  Praise  is,  then,  imperfect,  unless 
children  have  a  part  in  it.  The  praises  of  a  family  are  not 
complete  until  the  children  join.     There  are  reasons  why 


180  SERMONS. 

they  should  take  a  part.  God  has  blessed  them  ;  and  when 
the  hymn  rises  from  the  assembled  family,  they  should  be 
heard  too,  uttering  their  thankful  voices.  The  praises  of  the 
church  are  incomplete  ■without  the  children  ;  for  praise,  like 
the  music  that  utters  it,  may  utter  in  solitude  by  melody  the 
grateful  and  adoring  feelings  of  one  heart.  But  when  many 
come  to  join,  then  you  want  not  only  the  different  register 
or  scale  of  sounds  adapted  to  age  and  sex,  but  you  want  also 
harmony,  or  the  various  parts.  Some,  indeed,  think  that  it 
would  be  better  if  music  had  only  unison,  or  one  part ;  but 
such  persons  cannot  claim  to  have  obtained  that  idea  either 
from  divinely  appointed  religious  music,  from  the  very  capac- 
ities which  the  Creator  has  given  to  man  as  a  musical  being, 
or  from  a  survey  of  that  nature  which  perpetually  praises 
God,  blending  ocean's  solemn  cadence  with  the  rising  scale 
of  the  winds,  the  even  murmur  of  the  pine-forest  with  the 
twitter  of  the  swallow,  and  the  canary-bird's  trill. 

The  public  praises  of  Jehovah  call  for  the  blending  of  the 
graver  bass  with  its  appropriate  movement,  the  tender  or 
cheerful  soprano,  and  the  intermediate  expressions  of  tenor 
and  alto.  It  seems  to  be  to  just  such  a  choral  distribution 
that  the  Psalmist  refers,  when  he  says,  "Both  young  men 
and  maidens,  old  men  and  children,  let  them  praise  the  name 
of  the  Lord."  "  To  still  the  enemy  and  the  avenger."  What 
stronger  illustration  of  this  could  be  given  than  is  found  in 
this  case  of  the  hostile  scribes  rebuked  by  the  hosannas  of 
children  !  —  "  Thou  hast  hid  these  things  from  the  wise  and 
prudent,  and  hast  revealed  them  unto  babes."     The  learned 


CHILDHOOD    PRAISING   THE   LORD.  181 

could  see  no  evidence  that  their  Messiah,  their  Jehovah,  had 
come  to  his  temple,  and  thej  murmured  and  scowled ;  but 
the  children  saw  the  God  of  salvation  in  that  lowly  form.  — 
"  This  is  our  God,  and  we  have  waited  for  him." 

"  Thou  hast  perfected  praise."  —  Other  things  being  equal, 
a  child's  praise  is  probably  more  complete  than  that  of  a  man 
grown  mature  in  unbelief  before  his  conversion. 

From  this  gentler  aspect  of  the  Gospel,  then,  we  may 
readily  pass  to  another  reflection  derived  from  this  passage. 

II.  We  have  great  encouragement  to  labor  for 

THE    spiritual    GOOD    OF    CHILDREN. 

The  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ,  considered  in  two  aspects,  is 
full  of  majesty  and  vastness,  and  is  infinitely  removed  from 
the  feebleness  and  ignorance  of  man.  Its  revelations  are  of 
truths,  which  stand  like  pillars  whose  bases  are  in  the  depths 
of  an  infinite  abyss,  and  whose  capitals,  at  awful  height,  sus- 
tain the  vast  dome  that  spreads  over  the  presence-chamber 
of  the  King  of  kings.  No  man,  no  angel,  has  measured  their 
length  or  their  diameter,  has  sounded  to  the  place  where  they 
press  their  awful  weight,  or  reached  their  empyreal  summits. 
And  it  is  also  true  that  the  Gospel  contains  the  vast  powers 
that  are  to  mould  and  quicken  society,  after  they  shall  first 
have  dashed  to  pieces  and  crumbled  to  dust  every  mountain 
that  obstructs  Christ's  universal  dominion.  Yet  it  remains 
true  that  not  so  many  of  the  mighty,  noble,  or  wise  in  worldly 
wisdom,  as  of  the  simple  and  unlearned,  have  received  that 
Gospel  with  faith  in  it,  as  the  wisdom  and  power  of  God 
unto  salvation. 

16 


182  SERMONS. 

Its  great  truths  are  formed  to  the  simplest  apprehension 
of  him  who  sincerely  seeks  God.  They  are  addressed,  at 
first,  supremely  to  man's  moral  rather  than  his  intellectual 
nature ;  though,  when  once  in  the  heart,  they  greatly  quicken 
and  nourish  the  understanding.  The  essential  doctrines  lie 
within  the  intellectual  range  of  children,  and  are  apt  to  find 
less  formidable  opposition  in  their  moral  nature  than  in  that 
of  adults.  They  can  believe  that  a  great  Being  made  every- 
thing, —  that  it  is  a  wicked  heart  in  them  that  does  not  love 
him,  and  that  becomes  angry,  is  cruel,  selfisH,  deceitful,  dis- 
obedient. They  can  understand  that  Jesus  was  more  than 
man  or  angels ;  that  he  came  to  make  us  good,  and  to  forgive 
us ;  that  God  sustains  us ;  that  he  hears  prayer ;  that  we 
must  be  sorry  for  our  sins ;  that  we  must  believe  that  Christ 
will  do  as  he  says.  These  vital  doctrines  are  addi-essed,  not 
to  the  vigor  of  the  intellect,  but  to  the  sense  of  littleness, 
want,  dependence,  guilt ;  and  to  gratitude. 

The  declaration  made  by  our  Lord,  that  "of  such  is  the 
kingdom  of  heaven,"  was  designed  to  be.  and  has  been,  the 
source  of  great  encouragement  to  all  who  know  the  import- 
ance of  an  early  subjection  of  the  human  will  to  God's 
authority.  It  means,  both  that  the  subjects  of  the  new 
kingdom  are  actually  taken  from  that  rank  of  human  beings, 
and  that  there  are  fewer  embarrassments  in  a  child's  conver- 
sion than  in  that  of  an  adult.  The  man  is  to  unlearn,  and 
undo,  and  get  back ;  to  start  from  the  position  he  occupied  as 
a  child.     Neither  the  child  nor  the  adult  is  by  nature  in  that 


CHILDHOOD    PRAISING   THE  LORD.  183 

kingdom ;  but  the  latter  must  become  "as  a  little  child,"  that 
he  may  enter  it. 

We  may  inquire  how  these  children  were  led  to  praise  the 
lowly  Jesus  thus ;  and  the  almost  unquestionable  answer  is, 
they  had  been  taught  it  at  home.  Had  it  been  the  mere 
ebullition  of  childish  feeling,  and  the  imitation  of  older  per- 
sons, our  Saviour  would  not  have  noticed  it  with  such  honor ; 
but  these  children  had  probably  had  a  reverence  for  this 
lowly  but  beneficent  personage  inspired  at  home ;  and,  now 
that  the  spark  of  gratitude  in  the  persons  healed  fell  on  this 
tinder,  it  quickly  kindled.  Their  reverence  and  sympathy 
were  checked  by  no  artificial  notions,  worldly  plans,  and 
selfish,  jealousies. 

"  Mere  knowledge  makes  us  keen  and  cold, 

And  cunning  dwarfs  the  mind, 
As  more  and  more  the  heart  grows  old 

With  feelings  base  and  blind. 
Our  light  is  clearer,  but  our  love  is  less, 
And  few  the  hearts  that  we  can  bless." 

"Of  such  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven."  In  confirmation 
of  this,  we  refer  to  what  has  now  become  a  vast  range  of 
children's  biography ;  ridiculed  by  a  pharisaic  wisdom,  and 
frowned  upon  by  a  self-inflated  dignity,  but  watched  with 
joy  by  angels'  eyes. 

It  was  not  in  vain  that  Watts  wrote  hymns  for  children. 
Raikes,  in  founding  the  Sunday-school,  performed  a  work 
more  magnificent  in  its  results  than  many  most  magnified  by 
historians. 


184  SERMONS. 

They  that  look  upon  children  as  mere  toys,  have  not  the 
view  that  Christ  had;  for  he  regarded  them  as  religious 
beings.  They  that  are  indifferent  to  the  moral  and  religious 
impressions  made  by  themselves  and  others  on  children  have 
not  learned  of  him.  It  is  fearful  to  see  how  careless  some 
parents  are  in  this  matter,  and  that  under  the  light  of  the 
Gospel.  Juvenal,  a  heathen  poet,  could  say,  in  reference  to 
parents'  uttering  wicked  language  in  presence  of  their  chil- 
dren, " Magna  debetur  puero  reverentia,"  —  "Great  rever- 
ence is  due  to  a  child."  And  the  sentiment  has  a  profound 
meaning.  Reverence  is  due  to  his  responsibility  and  destiny, 
and  to  the  influence  he  may  hereafter  exert  on  others. 


XI. 

FASTING. 


"Cfjia  kinlj  ran  totnc  fortf)  6a  nothing  fiut  pragcr  anti  fasting. "  — 
Mark  9 :  29. 

We  shall  never  have  exhausted  the  four  gospels ;  to  say 
nothing  of  the  other  sections  of  the  holy  writings ;  but  shall 
die,  like  Isaac  Newton,  comparing  what  he  knew  with  what 
he  did  not  know  of  God's  works,  and  exclaiming,  "  To  myself 
I  seem  to  have  been  as  a  child  playing  on  the  sea-shore,  while 
the  immense  ocean  of  truth  lay  unexplored  before  me." 

Here  we  see  the  glory  of  the  Son  of  God  contrasted  Avith 
the  misery  of  sinful  man.  On  the  one  side,  the  Redeemer, 
speaking,  from  the  fulness  of  his  heart,  on  his  great  sacrifice 
for  man's  welfare ;  on  the  other,  a  demon,  tormenting  and 
seeking  to  destroy  a  poor  lad.  On  which  feature  of  this 
scene  could  we  ponder  without  a  fresh  interest,  a  new  impulse 
of  affection  and  gratitude  ? 

But  we  pass  by  all  the  others  at  this  time,  to  dwell  on  one 
remark,  and  on  the  circumstances  which  called  it  forth.  In 
the  absence  of  the  Lord,  the  nine  disciples  were  put  to  a 
severe  proof,  which  manifested  the  weakness  of  their  faith. 
One  of  Satan's  angels  had  taken  possession  of  a  young  man, 
16* 


186  SERMONS. 

and  subjected  him  to  horrible  suffering,  and  often  nearly 
destroyed  him.  The  afflicted  father,  hearing  the  fame  of 
Jesus,  brought  the  boy  to  the  disciples.  They  tried  their 
skill  upon  the  case,  and  found  it  insufficient ;  and  when  the 
Lord  himself  came  down  to  the  foot  of  the  mountain,  the 
father  approached  him,  and  told  his  piteous  story,  remarking 
that  the  disciples  had  failed  to  cast  out  the  demon.  After 
the  Saviour  had  healed  the  youth,  and  the  disciples  were  left 
alone  with  the  Master,  they  inquired  why  they  had  not  been 
able  to  overcome  the  devil.  Jesus  replied  (as  you  may  see 
in  Matt.  17)  that  it  was  on  account  of  their  unbelief;  for 
"this  kind  can  come  forth  by  nothing  but  prayer  and  fast- 
ing." Here  was  a  demon  of  extraordinary  strength,  and  he 
could  be  vanquished  only  by  extraordinary  prayer  and  fasting. 
Then  our  Saviour  clearly  teaches  that 

Fasting  is  connected  with  extraordinary  spiritual 
attainments  and  achievements.  —  These  disciples  lacked 
the  higher  form  of  prayer,  and  its  profounder  spirit.  There 
is  a  faith  which  removes  mountains ;  a  prayer  that  unlocks 
heaven,  and  vanquishes  the  powers  of  hell.  But  Christ  here 
shows  that  they  are  connected  with  fasting. 

I  would,  then,  observe  that 

I.  We  find  this  principle  confirmed  by  the  whole 

HISTORY  OF  FASTING,  IN  THE  SCRIPTURES,  AND  IN  THE 
CHURCH,  FROM   THE   CHRISTIAN   ERA   DOAVNWARD. 

1.  We  tnrn^  first^  to  the  Jeioish  church.  —  It  is  not 
affirmed  whether  the  patriarchs  knew  anything  of  fasting  as 
a  religious  service ;  but  Moses,  in  entering  into  the  Mount, 


FASTING.  187 

to  commune  "with  God  concerning  the  foundation  of  the  Old 
Testament  church,  for  forty  days  abstained  from  food,  —  of 
course  by  divine  direction,  and  by  miraculous  aid.  It  is 
quite  remarkable  that  the  three  persons  who  appeared  on  the 
Mount  of  Transfiguration  had  all  performed  this  extraordi- 
nary fast  of  forty  days,  —  Moses,  Elijah,  and  Christ. 

If,  now,  we  look  at  the  several  occasions  on  which  it  was 
employed  by  the  devout  members  and  eminent  leaders  of  the 
Jewish  church,  we  shall  receive  a  strong  impression  that  it 
has  some  connection  with  the  higher  exercises,  attainments, 
and  achievements,  of  piety,  or  with  cases  of  especial  appeal 
to  the  Most  High.  Sometimes  it  accompanies  deep  sorrow, 
whether  that  be  mere  natural  grief,  an  humble  recognition  of 
the  divine  chastisement,  or  a  deeply-penitential  sorrow  for 
sin.  When  Saul  was  buried,  having  been  the  first  King  of 
Israel,  and  having  been  slain  ingloriously,  the  people  assem- 
bled to  recover  his  insulted  corpse,  and  decently  inter  it. 
Then  they  fasted  seven  days.  When  David's  child  was  dan- 
gerously ill,  he  lay  on  his  face,  and  mourned,  with  fasting 
and  prayer.  The  Psalmist,  speaking  of  the  afflictions  brought 
on  him  by  his  enemies,  says,  "I  humbled  my  soul  with  fast- 
ing." The  great  day  of  atonement,  when  the  people  brought 
their  sins  particularly  to  mind,  was  a  day  of  fasting.  In 
Joel's  day,  the  people  were  called  to  assemble  themselves, 
with  fasting  and  weeping,  to  humble  themselves  before  the 
judgments  of  God ;  and  after  the  return  from  the  captivity, 
we  find  their  leaders,  Nehemiah  and  Ezra,  on  several  occa- 
sions calling  them  to  fast,  as  a  sign  and  aid  of  repentance. 


188  SERMONS. 

Another  use  of  it  was  to  prepare  the  mind  for  specially 
intimate  communion  with  God,  or  for  very  important  service 
to  the  church.  Moses  performed  that  extraordinary  fast 
when  he  was  in  that  wonderful  interview  which  produced  the 
Mosaic  institutions,  and  from  which  he  came  forth  with  the 
splendor  of  an  angel  radiating  from  his  visage.  When 
Daniel  was  about  to  receive  a  special  communication  rela- 
tive to  the  destiny  of  the  church,  he  spent  six  weeks  in  ojie 
form  of  fasting.  Ezra's  fasts  had  reference  too  to  great 
reformations  ;  and,  in  1  Sam.  7  :  6,  we  find  a  fist  to  have 
been  the  first  stage  in  one  of  those  glorious  revivals  which 
refreshed  and  preserved  the  ancient  church. 

Another  occasion  was  the  looking  to  God  for  especial  help. 
When  the  eleven  tribes  were  driven  to  the  necessity  of  pun- 
ishing Benjamin,  almost  to  extermination,  they  "  went  up, 
and  came  unto  the  house  of  God,  and  wept,  and  sat  there 
before  the  Lord,  and  fasted  that  day  until  even."  So,  when. 
Haman  had  procured  the  terrible  decree  that  was  to  anni- 
hilate the  Jewish  people,  Esther,  with  her  maids  of  honor, 
gave  themselves  to  fasting  and  prayer  for  the  deliverance  of 
their  people ;  and  with  what  success,  you  remember.  If  we 
now  follow  the  history  of  fasting  into 

2.  The  times  of  Christy  the  apostles,  and  the  early 
Christian  church,  we  see  it  having  the  same  solemn  import 
and  connections.  —  We  begin  with  the  great  exemplar.  Jesus 
did  many  things  as  a  Jew,  or  a  worshipper  under  the  old 
theocracy,  because  that  system  was  not  yet  abolished.  In 
such  matters  he  is  not  an  example,  only  so  far  as  the  spirit 


FASTING.  189 

of  obedience  and  order  is  concerned.  But  this  fasting  was 
not  Jewish.  It  obeyed  no  law  of  Moses.  It  was  human. 
It  was  spiritual  in  the  highest  degree,  and  a  most  fitting 
opening  to  his  glorious  ministry,  and  his  wondrous  life  as  the 
Saviour  of  men.  When  the  apostles  entered  on  their  great 
work,  we  find  fasting  an  exercise  accompanying  the  most 
solemn  function  of  their  office, —  the  ordaining  of  preachers 
and,  pastors.  Paul  speaks  of  himself  as  being  in  fastings 
often.  Sometimes  it  might  be  simply  a  consequence  of  his 
voluntary  poverty,  and  the  violence  of  opposition  which  he 
encountered.  But  he  says  that  he  and  his  fellow-ministers 
approved  themselves  to  men  by  their  fastings,  among  other 
things. 

And,  in  accordance  with  this,  there  are  two  remarks  which 
show  the  permanence  of  this  exercise  in  the  church.  When 
the  Pharisees  inquire  why  Christ's  disciples  were  not  found 
fasting  like  John's,  the  Lord  replied  that  the  friends  of  the 
bridegroom  were  so  joyous  in  his  society  that  fasting  would 
not  be  an  appropriate  expression  of  their  feelings.  But,  he 
continues,  the  bridegroom  will  be  taken  away ;  the  church 
is  to  pass  through  dark  days,  severe  trials,  dangerous  service, 
and  difficult  work ;  then  fasthag  will  be  appropriate  to  her  cir- 
cumstances and  her  feelings.  And  Paul  makes  such  allusion 
to  fasting  in  his  instructions  to  the  Corinthians,  as  shows 
that  he  regarded  it  as  a  permanent  institution  in  the 
church. 

After  the  apostolic  times,  the  church  preserved  fasting ; 
and,  at  length,  when  aiming  to  fix  a  uniform  observance  of 


190  '  SERMONS. 

sacred  seasons,  slie  set  apart  the  time  supposed  to  be  the 
same  as  that  of  our  Saviour's  fast  and  temptation  in  the 
wildernisss,  to  be  solemnized  with  the  anniversary  exercise  of 
abstinence.  And  I  believe  all  her  eminent  men,  of  every 
communion,  have  been  distinguished  for  this  exercise.  I  do 
not  remember  any  of  any  age  who  considered  it  as  obsolete 
or  useless.  Down  to  the  time  of  the  Reformation,  no  true 
Christian  any  more  thought  of  neglecting  fasting  than 
prayer.  After  the  Reformation  we  find  two  classes :  those 
who  chose  to  confound  the  Romish  abuse  with  the  institu- 
tion  itself,  and  so  despised  it ;  and  those  who  practised  it  in 
primitive  simplicity.  And  I  repeat  my  impression  that  the 
men  most  eminent  for  piety,  in  every  branch  of  the  Protest- 
ant church,  used  this  means  of  grace.     What,  then,  is 

II.  The  nature  of  fasting  as  a  religious  exercise  ? 

1.  It  is  a  spiritual  service.  —  There  is,  indeed,  an  exter- 
nal part,  like  kneeling  and  speaking  in  prayer,  Avhich  are 
very  important ;  and,  in  some  cases,  indispensable.  Yet  in 
both  cases  we  must  carefully  distinguish  the  essential  from 
the  circumstantial ;  the  soul  from  the  body.  Externally  it 
admits  of  several  degrees,  which  are  referred  entirely  to  the 
judgment  and  conscience  of  each  individual.  There  is  a  fast- 
ing which  may  be  exercised  daily  ;  a  keeping  one's  self  from 
yielding  too  far  to  the  pleasures  of  the  table.  There  is  an 
abstinence  like  Daniel's,  for  a  season,  from  food  as  a  source 
of  pleasure,  using  only  what  will  barely  sustain  life  and 
strength.  Then  there  is  a  total  abstinence  from  all  food  and 
drinks  for  a  certain  time.     The  rule  here  is  one  to  be  drawn 


.FASTING.  191 

up  conjointly  by  a  heart  desiring  the  greatest  spiritual  good, 
and  a  judgment  estimating  all  the  facts  of  the  case.  Let  the 
fast  be  so  strict  as  to  bend  in  no  degree  to  the  love  of  food ; 
so  lenient  as  not  to  injure  health. 

But,  to  make  mere  abstinence  from  food  an  end,  is  a 
senseless  mockery,  more  worthy  of  a  pagan  than  a  Christian. 
"Is  it  such  a  fast  that  1  have  chosen,  saith  the  Lord?  a 
day  for  a  man  to  afflict  his  soul  ?  "  A  little  diflferent  arrange- 
ment of  the  words  would  have  made  the  sense  more  obvious, 
namely,  "  Is  this  the  fasting  or  day  for  soul-humbling  that 
I  have  chosen  ;  the  mere  bowing  down  of  the  head  like  a 
bulrush,  and  spreading  sackcloth  and  ashes  under  him?" 
No.  He  says  :  I  require  you  to  fast  in  spirit ;  to  cease  from 
your  injustice  and  cruelty.  So  that  the  abstinence  from 
food,  more  or  less  rigid,  is  but  a  means  to  a  spiritual  end. 
It  may  often,  indeed,  be  bodily  beneficial  to  omit  a  meal, 
even  in  good  health  ;  but  that  is  not  a  religious  service,  it  is  a 
medical  regimen. 

2.  Fasting  is  in  no  loaij  a  meritorious  service^  nor  a 
magical  instrument.  —  The  Romish  church  has  filled  the 
world  with  delusions  on  this  subject ;  making  its  own  mem- 
bers dupes,  and  other  men  mockers  and  sceptics.  The  whole 
value  and  efficacy  of  it  depends  upon  the  other  points  which 
we  will  now  consider. 

3.  It  is  the  expression  of  an  earnest  religious  jyurjmse. 
— The  heart  of  him  who  fasts  aright  is,  at  the  time,  peculiarly 
concentrated.  Some  view  of  sin,  some  danger,  some  want, 
some  pressure  of  responsibility,  some  momentous  service  for 


192  SERMONS. 

God  and  the  church  about  to  be  entered  upon,  some  renewed 
earnestness  in  seeking  the  presence  of  the  Most  High,  are 
the  occasions  of  fasting  described  in  Scripture,  and  in  sacred 
biography.  These  are  the  elements  of  it.  The  heart  is 
fixed  on  one  great  object,  with  peculiar  earnestness  of  desire. 
Moses  did  not  fast  for  the  sake  of  laying  up  a  store  of  merit 
for  himself,  or  for  some  other  person.  The  founding  of 
God's  church ;  the  promulgation  of  Jehovah's  law ;  the  open- 
ing of  a  new  stage  in  the  work  of  redemption ;  these  were 
the  mighty  charges  lying  on  his  soul.  And  he  fasted,  as  a 
natural  means  of  aiding  his  self-abasement  and  his  spiritu- 
ality of  mind.  So  it  Avas  in  every  recorded  case ;  something 
of  peculiar  importance  peculiarly  occupied  the  mind.  And 
individuals  or  churches  appointing  fasts  ought  to  see  to  it 
that  they  have  some  distinct  and  great  object  before  them  in 
the  service,  whether  it  be  of  repentance,  humiliation  under 
chastisement,  seeking  increase  of  graces,  closer  communion 
with  God,  or  greater  usefulness,  the  averting  of  some  ca- 
lamity, the  enlargement  and  sanctification  of  the  church. 
This  earnestness  of  purpose  is  seen  not  only  in  being  fixed 
on  a  definite  object;  but  also  in  the  consecration  of  time  and 
person  to  that  specific  object.  That  is  an  eminent  advantage. 
Our  life  is  wasted  with  vague  intentions  and  scattered  labors ; 
our  consciences  are  cheated  with  good  resolutions  that  we 
never  find  time  to  execute.  A  fast  is  a  period  specifically 
devoted  to  one  object ;  and  that,  for  the  time,  the  most  import- 
ant to  which  that  person  can  attend.  By  making  the  object 
definite,  the  mind  is  concentrated,  clear,  calm,  and  strong. 


FASTING.  193 

By  fixing  the  purpose,  the  character  is  rendered  firm.  By 
executing  it,  the  conscience  assumes  its  proper  ascendency, 
and  something  definite  is  attained  and  accomplished. 

There  is  gain  in  another  direction  by  this  setting  apart 
time  to  accomplish  a  definite  object.  Hindrances  are  re- 
moved. There  is  some  reason  why  every  Christian  does  not 
grow  in  each  feature  of  the  divine  image  —  why  he  does  not 
execute  his  good  purposes ;  there  is  some  hindrance  which, 
for  want  of  a  fixed  attention,  he  may  never  have  seen,  or,  for 
want  of  a  fixed  purpose,  he  may  never  have  taken  out  of  the 
way.  Now  he  sets  his  heart  earnestly  on  a  great  object. 
And  the  hindrances  show  themselves  distinctly,  and  are  taken 
in  hand  resolutely.  This  mere  setting  apart  a  specific  season 
to  accomplish  a  specific  spiritual  result,  is  like  the  case  of  a 
traveller  who  had  always  been  walking  sideways  or  backward 
toward  the  town  he  desired  to  visit.  If  he  came  against  a  post, 
he  could  not  tell  what  it  was,  nor  how  to  avoid  it,  his  eyes  not 
being  in  the  right  direction.  Now  he  turns  his  face  toward 
the  city,  and  turns  off  his  attention  from  diverting  objects 
which  heretofore  were  most  in  his  thoughts.  Now  he  knows 
whether  the  hindrance  is  a  post  or  a  fence,  a  rock  or  a  hill, 
and  he  finds  a  way  of  avoiding  it.  A  season  of  fasting, 
moreover, 

4.  Is  co?isonant  with  pecuUa?^  degrees  of  repentance.  — 
Repentance  includes  a  distinct  contemplation  of  our  personal 
sins.  To  that,  such  a  season  is  very  favorable.  It  includes 
sorrow  for  sin.  Indeed,  the  natural  effect  of  sorrow  is  to 
diminish  the  appetite  for  food.  When  Saul  was  sore  dis- 
17 


194  SERMONS. 

tressed,  because  the  Philistines  made  war  on  him,  and  God 
had  abandoned  him,  it  is  recorded,  "  He  had  eaten  no  bread, 
all  the  day,  nor  all  the  night."  And  the  ship's  compaay  in 
which  Paul  was,  "when  no  small  tempest  lay  upon  them, 
and  all  hope  that  they  should  be  saved  was  taken  away,  con- 
tinued fasting  for  fourteen  days."  Saul  of  Tarsus,  when 
first  awakened  to  the  sense  of  his  sins,  being  led  blind  into 
Damascus,  "was  three  days  without  sight,  and  neither  did 
eat  nor  drink."  The  Ninevites,  knowing  nothing  of  God 
but  his  indignation  at  their  wickedness,  humbled  themselves 
at  the  call  of  his  prophet,  and  fasted  in  their  sorrow. 

There  is  also  in  repentance  a  congeniality  with  fasting, 
because  both  express  a  kind  of  holy  revenge  against  sin.  Past 
ingratitude  for  God's  goodness,  a  sensual  attachment  to  his 
gifts,  a  perversion  of  them  to  idolatry  and  pride  and  selfish- 
ness, makes  it  suitable  sometimes  to  say  to  the  body,  "There, 
thou  shalt  sufier  now  this  privation,  as  a  chastisement;  "  and 
to  sin,  "Thou  hast  conquered  me  by  thy  blandishments  ;  now 
I  will  hold  thee  at  bay  through  these  bodily  appetites,  which 
are  thy  favorite  instruments."  Repentance  is  also  the  soul 
breaking  itself  loose  from  the  world.  And  there  is  an  appro- 
priateness in  setting  apart  a  time  in  which  the  soul  shall  have 
no  more  to  do  with  the  material  world  than  absolute  neces- 
sity requires.  "I  keep  my  body  under,"  said  an  eminent 
Christian  hero. 

5.  Fcmting  accords  loith  a  season  set  apart  for  pecu- 
liar efforts  to  attain  to  personal  holiness.  —  To  some  per- 
sons, I  am  aware,  the  physical  part  of  fasting  is  not  peculiarly 


FASTING, 


195 


difficult.  But,  take  it  in  its  general  feature,  it  is  as  an 
expression  of  suffering,  more  or  less.  And  as  such  it  is  a 
link  in  a  chain,  a  stage  on  the  road  toward  holiness,  to  him 
who  rightly  employs  it.  The  fathers  called  it  "the  nour- 
isher  of  prayer,  the  restraint  of  lust,  the  wings  of  the  soul, 
the  diet  of  angels,  the  instrument  of  humility  and  self-denial, 
the  purifier  of  the  spirit."  And  St.  Basil  remarks,  that  "The 
paleness  and  meagreness  of  visage,  in  great  mortifiers  of  self, 
is  the  mark  in  the  forehead  to  which  Ezekiel  alludes."  Sin, 
we  know,  is  to  be  conquered,  as  it  was  atoned  for.  by  suffering. 
God  is  calling  us  to  a  complete  self-conquest.  And  self-denial 
is  a  feature  of  the  Gospel  system,  prominent  and  fundamental. 
There  is  too  a  necessity  that  we  make  vigorous  attacks  on  the 
strongholds  of  sin  and  Satan  within  us.  We  are  sometimes 
like  the  King  of  Israel  sending  an  army  to  suppress  the 
rebellion.  And,  while  making  all  this  parade  of  sternness, 
he  issues  this  order  concerning  the  chief  and  soul  of  the  con- 
spiracy: "  Deal  gently,  for  my  sake,  with  the  young  man, 
even  with  Absalom."  A  fast,  to  be  genuine,  presupposes 
that,  although  sin  remains  in  the  heart,  the  love  of  it  is  gone. 
In  part,  our  Saviour's  fasting  was  not  like  ours.  He  had 
no  sins  to  conquer.  But  he  had  a  human  nature  to  elevate 
spiritually.  Who  knows  how  much  that  human  nature 
needed  to  be  raised  above  its  native  state,  to  carry  it  to  its 
perfection?  The  Captain  of  our  salvation  was  "  made  perfect 
through  suffering."  The  critics  say  it  was  an  official  perfec- 
tion. It  was  that,  and  perhaps  more.  As  his  human  nature 
admitted  of  growth  in  quantity,  it  might  also  in  quality, 


196  SERMONS. 

without  derogating  from  its  purity.  His  long  fast  may  have 
had  reference  to  this  end.  It  was,  doubtless,  a  means  which 
his  holy  human  nature  needed  for  the  highest  communion 
with  the  Godhead,  as  well  as  to  be  -an  example  to  his  church  ; 
showing  his  followers  that  the  road  to  high  attainments  and 
results  is  through  suffering  and  self-abasement.  Then,  says 
one,  "let  us  follow  Christ,  though  at  a  distance;  for,  if  we 
may  but  touch  the  hem  of  his  garment  by  the  small  begin- 
nings of  a  faithful  imitation,  we  shall  find  a  virtue  coming 
out  from  him,  to  the  curing  of  the  malady  of  sin  and  of  its 
bloody  issue." 

6.  Fasting  agrees^  too^  icith  the  'peculiar  exercise  of 
love  to  Christ.  —  He  peculiarly  desires  that  we  remember 
his  sufferings.  "Do  this  in  remembrance  of  me."  His 
fasting  was  a  part  of  his  suffering,  and  a  part  in  which  we 
can  imitate  and  share  with  him.  His  divine  nature  enabled 
him  to  bear  suffering,  but  it  did  not  diminish,  probably  in- 
creased, his  sensibility  to  it.  This  we  ought  to  study  at 
every  point  of  its  manifestation,  especially  as  it  is  so  opposed 
to  all  our  natural  tendencies.  We  must,  by  any  and  all 
means,  become  serious  in  our  apprehension  of  the  evil  of  sin. 
and  the  power  of  Satan.  We  must  learn  that  the  plague  is 
deep  and  malignant;  that  there  is  a  "  kind  "  which  will  hold 
their  position  long.  Jesus  fasted  and  wept,  watched,  agonized, 
and  prayed,  in  reference  to  them.  We  must  be  baptized 
with  his  baptism,  and  drink  of  his  cup.     There  is  thus 

7.  A  peculiar  fitness  in  making  a  fast  to  accompany 
our  peculiar  onsets  on  Sataiis  kingdom.  —  The  first  thing 


FASTING.  197 

we  need,  in  waging  the  battles  of  the  Lord,  is  to  believe  that 
there  are  any  battles  to  fight :  that  Satan  and  his  demons 
are  realities.    Then  we  need  to  know  that  they  are  too  formi- 
dable for  us ;  and  yet  that  they  are  not  invincible.     This  kind 
can  be  driven  forth,  but  it  must  be  "by  fasting  and  prayer." 
We  can  become  the  organs  of  the  Spirit  of  God  by  fasting 
and   prayer.     If  Satan   is  mighty  in  resisting,  we  can  be 
"strong  in  the  power  of  the  Lord,  and  of  his  might."     We 
are  .first  ourselves  to  break  from  all  allegiance  to  him.     And 
fasting  is  one  means  of  efiecting  that.     Eating  was  the  first 
outward  act  by  which   man  symbolized  and  expressed   his 
allegiance  to  Satan.     And  there  seems  to  be  a  peculiar  fit- 
ness in  his  sometimes  recalling  that  fact,  and  refusing  to  eat 
for  a  season.     Satan,  in  his  great  attack  on  our  Lord,  appears 
to  have  made  the  common  mistake  about  the  effect  of  fastintr. 
If  it  were  merely  a  bodily  exercise,  it  would  expose  men  to 
his  temptations.     But,  when  used  as  a  spiritual  exercise,  he 
finds  himself  weak  before  the  little  ones  of  Christ.     He  came 
to  the  king  himself  at  the  end  of  the  fast,  as  the  most  favor- 
able time  for  his  attack.     But  he  found  the  spirit  prepared 
for  him,  in  whatever  condition  the  body  may  have  then  been. 
We  must  look  to  God  in  our  attacks  on  Satan.     And 
religious  fasting  is  an  acceptable  service.     He  accepted  it  of 
Moses  and  Nehemiah,  of  Jesus  and  of  the  apostles.     And 
we  may  suppose  that  they  who  attack  the  strongest  demons 
will  be  most  rewarded.     The  essence  of  this  exercise,  as  a 
service  to  God,  lies  in  the  intention  to  seek  and  serve  him 
in  an  especial  manner,  and  to  make  a  season  unusually  holy, 
17* 


198  SERMONS. 

by  separating  one's  self,  as  far  as  is  possible  and  proper,  from 
all  earthly  interests  and  enjoyments.  Here  is  its  chief 
value,  in  this  purpose  and  the  earnestness  of  it.  Without 
that,  the  day  is  gloomy,  and  full  of  headache  and  discourage- 
ment ;  with  it,  the  day  is  ethereal,  heavenly.  It  is  very 
evident,  too,  from  the  case  before  us  in  the  text,  that  we  may 
fast  and  pray  in  reference  to  the  good  of  others,  as  well  as 
ourselves. 

We  see  hoiv  the  church  is  to  become  efficient.  —  Her  at- 
tainments are  low  and  limited,  and  so  are  her  achievements ; 
because  her  aims  are  low,  her  faith  weak,  her  self-denial  .a 
name.  She  must  aim  higher,  and  her  trust  must  be  alone  in 
God.  How  vain  is  much  of  her  hope  !  Fine  buildings,  ar- 
chitecture, the  talents  of  her  preachers,  wealth  accumulating 
in  her  coffers,  the  favor  of  the  wealthy,  numbers  and  worldly 
influence,  —  to  these  multitudes  are  looking.  But  the  kind 
that  has  possession  of  the  world  now  "cometh  not  out  "  by 
any  nor  all  of  these.  We  must  go  downward  rather  than 
upward.  We  must  see  what  kind  of  meetings  we  have  when 
fasting  and  praying  are  the  work  in  hand,  to  judge  of  our 
real  power  and  progress. 

And  is  there  now  no  call  for  private  and  social  fasting, 
to  be  accompanied  with  peculiarly  earnest  prayer  ?  Is  not 
Satan  in  greatest  power  when  his  power  is  least  dreaded  ? 
Are  there  not  demons  of  pride,  and  avarice,  and  lust,  and 
unbelief,  that  will  go  out  by  no  other  means  now,  as  in  the 
former  days  ? 


XII. 

PAUL'S  KEVIEW  OF  HIS  LIFE. 


"I  am  noli)  rcatja  to  ht  oUtxfD,  anti  U;c  time  of  tng  trparturj  fa  at 
fianti.  I  fja&e  foujjijt  a  300^1  fintt,  E  fja&c  finiBfttti  mg  coutaf, 
2  ftabe  kept  tfje  faitfj:  fjenccfort^  tfjere  is  laili  up  for  me  a  crniutt 
of  rtstitcousncss,  Sofjictj  tfie  ILorU,  tfje  rifltteous  Juigc,  s^all  gibe 
me  at  tfjat  tiaj."— 2Tim.  4:  6— S. 

Thus  Paul  wrote  to  Timothy,  about  thirty  years  after  he 
was  converted.  He  had  begun  his  new  course,  clear  in  his  per- 
ceptions of  the  work  to  be  done,  prompt  and  firm  in  his  purpose 
to  do  it ;  and  we  now  look  with  deep  interest  to  the  end  of  it. 
The  review  of  one's  life  is  always  a  serious  matter,  if  hon- 
estly performed.  But  here  is  a  review  of  more  than  ordi- 
nary interest.  It  is  made  by  a  man  of  extraordinary  piety 
and  good  sense ;  a  man  eminently  distinguished  of  Heaven 
in  the  mode  of  his  conversion,  in  the  office  conferred  on  him, 
and  in  the  blessing  crowning  his  labors ;  a  man  now  on  the 
isthmus  between  his  labors  and  their  issues  in  eternity ;  a 
man  relating  his  experience,  and  uttering  his  hopes,  under 
the  guidance  of  insi^iration. 

He  informs  us  that 

I.  The  past  filled  him  with  satisfaction.  —  It  was 


200  SERMONS. 

not  that  he  had  never  been  a  transgressor  of  GocVs  law,  or 
had  ever  perfectly  conformed  to  its  requirements ;  but  the 
main  current  of  his  life  since  his  conversion,  the  fixed  pur- 
pose of  his  heart,  the  influence  he  had  exerted  on  human 
thought,  feeling,  character,  and  destinj,  gave  him  great  satis- 
faction.    He  views  his  life  under  three  aspects  : 

1.  He  had  been  a  warrio7\  —  And  his  contest  was  with 
no  phantom  or  abstraction;  not  with  a  mere  principle  of 
evil,  employed  without  will  or  intelligence,  but  with  a 
real  enemy.  Paul  evidently  acted  continiially  under  the 
impression  that  he  was  in  an  enemy's  country,  —  that  he 
was  watched  by  an  invisible  foe,  resisted  by  a  being  mightier 
than  priest  or  prince.  "  We  wrestle  not,"  he  says,  "against 
flesh  and  blood,  but  against  principalities,  and  powers,  and 
spiritual  wickednesses  in  high  places."  He  recognized  a 
terrible  unity  in  sin,  —  an  energy  and  ubiquity  which  are 
angelic.  He  considered  himself  an  oflicer  in  an  army  which 
has  regiments  contending  in  battle-fields  far  away  from  this 
earth.  He  was  not  chief  in  this  war,  though  chief  in  the 
visible  army.  The  Captain  under  whom  he  fought  was  not 
seen  on  earth,  but  King  in  heaven.  The  captain  with  whom 
he  contended  he  called,  on  account  of  his  invisible  presence, 
"Prince  of  the  power  of  the  air." 

Paul's  enemy  was  God's  enemy.  He  had  no  quarrels  of 
ambition,  or  revenge,  or  covetousness,  or  pride,  to  settle. 
His  eye  was  fixed  on  the  prince  who  led  the  revolt  in  heaven, 
and  had  brought  it  down  to  earth.  Against  him  Paul  pro- 
claimed an  open  and  uncompromising  war,  —  a  war  of  exter- 


Paul's  keview  of  his  life.  201 

mination ;  and  he  extended  it  to  everything  that  enlisted 
under  Satan.  Hence  it  began  in  his  own  heart,  against  the 
traitors  long  entertained  there ;  and  vrith  them  he  proclaimed 
an  unrelenting  war.  Every  thought  must  be  brought  into 
captivity  to  Christ,  with  every  affection,  every  purpose,  and 
power  of  the  soul.  Whatever,  then,  there  was  in  Saul  of  pride 
or  passion,  of  selfishness  or  worldliness,  must  find  from  Paul 
no  favor  nor  leniency ;  and  whatever  system  of  philosophy 
or  religion,  whatever  institution  or  person,  was  engaged  to 
destroy  the  kingdom  of  his  Lord,  to  prevent  its  supremacy 
in  the  world,  or  to  rival  the  glory  of  Christ,  he  contended 
"with  in  the  same  spirit.  Read,  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles, 
and  Paul's  Epistles,  how  constantly  he  was  maintaining  tiie 
truth  of  the  Gospel,  the  purity  of  the  church,  and  the  faith 
of  believers,  in  opposition  to  the  powerful  attacks  of  w'icked 
men.  He  reckoned  those  who  persecuted  him  in  the  same  class 
with  the  men  w'ho  killed  the  Lord  Jesus  and  the  prophets. 
This,  then,  made  it  a  good  fight.  It  was  a  resistance  only  to 
evil :  a  defence  only  of  righteousness  and  truth ;  a  contest 
for  the  glory  of  God,  and  the  good  of  men.  It  was  a  good 
fight,  too,  in  its  mode  and  spirit.  He  displayed  in  it  eminent 
courage,  bearding  the  lion  in  his  den.  His  chief  labors  were 
in  the  great  cities  of  the  Roman  empire ;  and  it  is  most 
interesting  to  see  this  little,  feeble  man  drawing  his  blade 
upon  the  champions  of  every  false  system  of  thought,  and 
every  institution  in  which  Satan  was  intrenched.  Men  have 
gazed  with  admiration  on  Napoleon,  rushing  from  France  to 
Italy,  to  Egypt,  to  Germany,  to  Spain,  to  Russia;  strug- 


202  SERMONS. 

gling,  and  that  successfully,  against  the  mighty  powers  of  the 
continent.  But  there  was  one  mightier  whom  he  never  at- 
tacked. He  never  besieged  a  fortress  in  England,  and  yet 
England  contained  the  seat  of  the  power  which  could  defeat  all 
his  plans.  But  Paul,  as  a  captain,  had  a  higher  kind  of  ubi- 
quity than  this  wonderful  man.  He  vanquished  Judaism  in 
Jerusalem.  He  met  the  idolatry  of  Grecian  Asia  at  Ephesus. 
He  penetrated  Corinth,  the  stronghold  of  pagan  luxury.  He 
met  the  philosophy  of  Greece  in  Athens,  and  the  whole  power 
of  paganism  at  Rome,  its  political  capital.  No  mighty  army 
executed  his  plans,  and  defended  his  person.  No  enthusiastic 
nation  sustained  him.  He  knew  and  contended  with  every 
heresiarch  that  troubled  the  church.  He  had  no  fear  of 
priest  or  proconsul,  —  of  a  Jewish  mob,  or  a  Boman 
emperor.  He  counted  not  his  life  dear  to  him.  If  the 
earthly  hero  equalled  him  there,  yet  he  sinks  into  littleness 
by  his  ambition.  True  heroism  consists  in  reaching  that 
point  of  courage  by  absorption  in  a  public  interest  greater 
than  the  personal  interest  he  jeopards.  But  his  courage 
was  not  rash,  for  he  was  wonderfully  patient.  He  could  wait 
for  results  and  deliverances.  His  advice  to  Timothy  was 
copied  from  his  own  life  :  "  Thou,  therefore,  endure  hardness 
as  a  good  soldier  of  Jesus  Christ."  "  I  suffer  trouble  as  an 
evil-doer,  even  unto  bonds ;  but  the  word  of  God  is  not 
bound.  Therefore  I  endure  all  things  for  the  elect's  sake." 
When  suffering  could  promote  the  cause,  he  suffered  cheer- 
fully; when  action  was  wanted,  he  Avas  among  the  most 
jictive.     Without  this  disregard  to  self,  no  one  can  fight  the 


Paul's  review  of  his  life.  203 

good  fight.  Thej  will  be  either  remiss  -when  activity  is 
demanded,  or  impetuous  when  patience  is  strength,  and  suf- 
fering is  victory.  But  so  Paul  fought,  sometimes  in  earnest 
debate,  sometimes  in  fervent  preaching;  quite  as  often  in 
meek  endurance,  patient  suffering,  and  solitary  prayer. 

He  fought,  therefore,  with  the  right  weapons ;  his  reliance 
was  mainly  on  these  —  the  truth  of  the  Gospel,  the  power 
of  example,  the  prayer  of  faith.  Never  did  man  more  scru- 
pulously obey  the  rules  of  this  holy  war,  or  more  skilfully 
employ  these  holy  weapons.  He  showed  men  how  to  be 
Chiustians.  He  fought  against  their  prejudices  by  his  life ; 
he  attacked  their  consciences  with  the  Gospel,  which  he 
calls  "  the  sword  of  the  Spirit."  And  then  he  turned  back 
to  him  with  whom  is. the  residue  of  the  Spirit,  to  bring 
down  that  mighty  power  of  God  which  gives  the  victory. 
This  was  his  good  fight  ;  not  a  contest  against  right, 
freedom,  or  innocence ;  not  conducted  selfishly  nor  cru- 
elly; not  wuth  weapons  of  death;  but  against  falsehood, 
sin,  and  Satan ;  not  for  a  party,  a  name,  a  man,  a  coun- 
try ;  but  for  God,  for  eternal  principles.  He  found  the  for- 
tresses of  Satan  at  Thessalonica,  at  Jerusalem,  at  Philippi, 
at  Corinth,  at  Athens,  at  Rome.  He  entered  them  all,  like 
David  meeting  Goliah,  in  the  strength  of  Israel's  God.  Idols 
trembled,  and  priests  turned  pale  before  him.  His  was  a 
good  fight.  No  hero  of  earth  had  ever  such  right  to  exult 
in  the  review  of  his  conflicts  and  his  victories. 

Thus  was  Paul  a  warrior ;  and  yet,  while  so  much  of  his 
life  might  be  embraced  under  that  figure,  it  was  not  all. 


204  SERMONS. 

2.  He  had  been  a  racer,  also.  —  The  Greeks  were  a 
remarkable  people  ;  brought  bj  Providence  on  the  stage  of 
action  to  introduce  a  new  phase  of  civilization,  and  a  new 
development  of  the  human  faculties.  They  gave  great  prom- 
inence to  the  education  of  the  body  ;  associating  with  it  the 
religious  sentiments,  the  social  and  patriotic  feelings,  and  the 
highest  intellectual  exercises  and  enjoyments.  Their  games 
were  among  the  mightiest  instruments  of  their  national  cul- 
tivation. Their  periodical  recurrence  moved  the  enthusiasm 
of  the  Grecian  states  and  colonies,  and  drew'  admiring  spec- 
tators from  remote  parts  of  the  earth.  They  had  none  of 
the  low  associations  of  our  modern  games,  nor  all  of  the 
demoralizing  tendency  of  modern  theatres.  They  were, 
therefore,  most  appropriate  to  the  illustration  of  those  lofty 
aspirings  and  efforts  to  which  the  Gospel  calls  men.  "I 
have  finished  my  race,"  says  Paul.  "I  entered  the  course 
thirty  years  ago ;  and  now  the  goal  has  come  in  sight ;  a 
few  more  steps,  and  I  shall  seize  the  prize." 

What  was  the  goal  ?  It  was,  to  attain  and  accomplish  the 
highest  ends  man  can  seek ;  the  highest  personal  perfection 
consistent  with  being  on  earth  ;  attaining,  as  he  styles  it,  "to 
the  resurrection  of  the  dead;"  the  exalting  Christ  among 
men ;  the  leading  men  to  him ;  the  confirmation  of  the 
churches  in  their  faith ;  the  leaving  behind  him  writings 
which  should  be  the  means  of  glorifying  God,  edifying  his 
people,  and  converting  men,  to  the  end  of  time.  He  had 
aimed  at  these  achievements ;  and,  by  the  grace  of  God,  he 
had  accomplished  them.    It  was  a  vast  work  ;  but  it  was  now 


PAUL'S   REVIEW   OF   HIS  LIFE.  205 

finished.  He  had  been  intensely  active ;  but  the  time  of 
rest  was  now  come.  He  had  started,  Saul  the  young,  im- 
petuous, bold,  and  brave  ;  now  he  closes  his  course,  Paul  the 
aged,  calm,  gentle,  and  hopeful.  It  is  the  same  spirit,  and  a 
noble  spirit,  that  acts  in  two  such  opposite  ways ;  making  its 
possessor  all  enthusiasm  and  energy  Avhen  work  is  to  be  done, 
all  quietness  and  composure  when  suffering  is  to  be  borne  ; 
that  is  the  true  spirit  that  knows  how  to  work,  and  how  to 
rest;  how  to  do,  and  how  to  endure;  how  to  live,  and  how  to  die. 
What  is  this  spirit  ?  It  finds  the  course  it  is  to  run,  the 
end  it  is  to  seek,  the  principles  on  which  it  is  to  act.  Many 
act  from  impulse,  custom,  and  slavish  imitation,  all  their 
lives.  If  they  run  a  race,  it  is  not  their  own ;  they  do  not 
seek,  at  the  right  sources,  what  they  were  made  for.  Every 
one  has  an  individual  constitution  entirely  peculiar,  and 
adapted  to  particular  ends.  By  this,  Providence  has  fitted 
that  person  to  attain  to  personal  perfection,  to  glorify  God, 
and  to  benefit  the  world  in  a  particular  way.  And  no  one 
finds  that  way  without  a  spirit  of  unreserved  consecration ;  a 
renouncement  of  all  selfish  and  worldly  ends ;  an  honest  and 
earnest  proposal  of  the  inquiry  Avhich  Saul  presented  to  him 
who  alone  can  answer  it,  "Lord,  what  wilt  thou  have  me  to 
do?"  "I  run,"  says  Paul,  "not  as  uncertainly."  The 
ends  I  am  seeking  are  those  which  my  Creator  sought  in  giv- 
ing me  being ;  those  my  Redeemer  sought  in  purchasing  me 
with  his  precious  blood.  I  have  chosen  them  in  view  of 
God's  will,  and  of  their  own  intrinsic  importance.  They  are 
the  principles  that  lie  at  the  basis  of  my  life.  I  respect 
18 


206  SERMONS. 

them,  I  reverence  them,  I  make  everything  bend  to  them. 
Besides  this  distinct  election  of  the  right  objects  to  live  for, 
or  the  right  motives  of  action,  there  is  a  firmness  and  steadi- 
ness of  will  or  purpose  which  is  implied  in  a  successful 
finishing  this  course.  He  who  thus  finishes  his  course  is 
not  governed  by  his  feelings  or  his  frames.  Depressed  or 
cheerful,  well  or  ill,  in  favor  or  out  of  favor,  he  presses 
toward  the  mark  for  the  prize  of  the  high  calling  of  God ; 
laying  aside  every  weight,  he  runs  with  patience.  And 
then  there  is  another  rule  of  the  sacred  Olympics  :  not  only 
must  the  athlete  keep  his  body  under,  but  he  must  look  to 
Jesus,  the  author  and  finisher  of  our  faith.  "This  is  the 
victory  that  overcometh  the  world,  even  our  faith."  But 
faith  rests,  as  its  ultimate  exercise,  in  the  almighty  Saviour. 
"  Not  I,"  says  Paul,  "  but  the  grace  of  God,  which  was 
with  me.  What  I  am,  I  am  by  the  grace  of  God."  He 
prays  for  the  Ephesians,  that  Christ  may  dwell  in  their 
hearts  by  faith. 

He  then  gives  us  another  view  of  his  life,  under  the  figure 
of  a  trusteeship  or  stewardship. 

3.  He  had  been  a  steward.  —  His  life  presented  in  this 
aspect  a  trust  discharged.     "  I  have  kept  the  faith." 

A  trust  implies  two  parties :  one  intrusting,  the  other 
receiving  the  deposit,  or  charge.  Who,  then,  committed  to 
Paul  the  sacred  interest  he  had  so  faithfully  kept?  The 
answer  is  found  in  many  passages.  When  Saul  yet  lay 
blind  in  a  house  in  Damascus,  the  Lord  Jesus  said  to  Ana- 
nias, concerning  him,  "He  is  a  chosen  vessel  unto  me,  to 


PAUL'S   REVIEW    OF  HIS  LIFE,  207 

bear  my  name  before  the  Gentiles,  and  kings,  and  the  chil- 
dren of  Israel."  He  speaks  of  his  ministry  thus:  "The 
ministry  which  I  have  received  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  to  testify 
the  Gospel  of  the  grace  of  God."  When  he  was  stricken  to 
the  earth,  on  the  road  to  Damascus,  he  cries  to  Jesus,  "Lord, 
what  wilt  thou  have  me  do  ? "  He  calls  himself  a  ser- 
vant of  Jesus  Christ,  an  apostle,  missionary,  or  ambassador. 
"We  are  ambassadors  for  Christ."  He,  therefore,  regarded 
himself  as  intrusted  by  the  Lord  Jesus  with  a  treasure  that 
he  must  most  sacredly  guard,;  and  that  treasure  was  the  Gos- 
pel. How  he  understood  the  Gospel,  we  can  learn  in  the 
fullest  manner  from  the  Scriptures.  We  have,  besides 
many  casual  remarks,  no  less  than  five  of  his  sermons 
reported  at  greater  or  less  length,  and  fourteen  letters  or 
essays  from  his  hands  ;  and  the  burden  of  them  all  is  the 
theme  with  which  he  commenced  his  ministry  in  Damascus, 
preaching  Christ,  that  he  is  the  Son  of  God;  "opening  and 
alleging  from  the  Scriptures  that  Christ  must  have  suflFered 
and  risen  again  from  the  dead;"  "testifying  repentance 
toward  God,  and  faith  in  our  Lord  Jesus." 

From  Christ  he  received  it  in  charge  to  make  men  know 
what  he  had  done  to  save  them,  and  what  they  must  do 
that  he  might  save  them.  —  "  We  preach  not  ourselves, 
but  Christ  Jesus  the  Lord."  The  great  facts  and  principles 
of  redemption  were  committed  to  him,  to  believe  them,  to 
manifest  their  power  in  his  own  experience,  to  preach  them 
to  mankind,  and  commit  them  to  writing.     He  was  thus  to 


208  SERMONS. 

present  to  men,  and  to  perpetuate  to  all  future  generations, 
the  doctrines,  practice,  and  spirit,  of  the  Gospel. 

How  did  he  discharge  that  trust  ?  Faithfully.  In  regard 
to  his  own  soul,  he  knew  that  he,  as  a  man,  must  take  the 
same  care  of  it  as  the  obscurest  believer,  of  his.  His  talents, 
his  apostleship,  would  not  make  any  less  necessity  for  vigi- 
lance and  care.  Hence,  we  find  many  evidences  of  his  minute 
fidelity  as  a  Christian.  "I  keep  my  body  under,"  he  says. 
"  Forgetting  the  things  which  are  behind,  I  count  not  my- 
self to  have  attained."  To  notice  only  one  particular :  he 
was  peculiarly  exposed  to  pride,  from  his  position  and  his 
success.  But  he  could  call  the  Ephesian  pastors  to  witness, 
"Ye  know,  from  the  first  day  that  I  came  into  Asia,  after 
what  manner  I  have  been  among  you  at  all  seasons  ;  serving 
the  Lord  with  all  humility  of  mind,  and  with  many  tears  and 
temptations  which  befell  me  by  the  lying  in  wait  of  the  Jews." 
And  thus  it  was  in  regard  to  every  grace  of  the  spirit ;  he  had 
preserved  them  with  great  vigilance  and  prayerfulness.  "  I 
have  kept  the  faith ;  "  I  have  not  swerved  from  the  doctrine, 
the  precept,  or  the  spirit,  of  the  Gospel  of  my  Lord. 

He  had  been  a  faithful  guardian,  likewise,  of  the  truth. 
Scarcely  had  he  received  the  truth,  before  he  began  to  pro- 
claim it  in  Damascus.  He  preached  the  crucified  one  in  the 
synagogues,  that  he  is  the  Son  of  God.  And  he  "increased 
in  strength,  confounding  the  Jews  which  dwelt  at  Damascus, 
proving  that  this  is  very  Christ;  "  probably  even  then  wield- 
ing some  of  those  powerful  arguments  which  are  found  in  the 
epistles  to  the  Romans,  Galatians,  and  Hebrews. 


PAUL'S   KEVIEW   OF  HIS   LIFE.  209 

But  this  required  a  great  degree  of  self-denial.  He  was 
told  that  he  could  do  this  work  only  through  great  suffering. 
And,  from  the  very  opening  of  his  ministry,  he  began  to 
drink  of  his  Master's  cup,  and  share  his  baptism.  From  first 
to  last,  he  remained  in  the  state  of  mind  expressed  in  the 
text :  "  I  am  ready  to  be  offered."  "  Since  truth  requires 
her  champion  to  be  a  martyr,  I  have  laid  myself  on  the 
altar,  and  I  am  ready  to  have  the  axe  descend  upon  the  vic- 
tim. Death,  tortures,  contempt,  in  Christ's  behalf,  have  no 
terrors  to  me.  I  count  not  my  life  dear  to  me,  so  that  I 
might  finish  my  course  with  joy,  and  the  ministry  which  I 
have  received  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  to  testify  the  Gospel  of  the 
grace  of  God." 

He  had  otlier  men's  souls  in  trust.  The  faith  he  kept  was 
to  save  them  ;  and  he  spared  no  labor,  nor  shunned  any  dan- 
ger, that  he  might  communicate  to  them  the  precious  boon. 
He  kept  the  faith  ;  not  in  mere  guardianship,  but  with  the 
fidelity  of  a  guardian  intrusted  with  property  to  be  wisely 
applied  to  the  good  of  his  wards. 

He  had  especially  the  church  in  trust.  The  faith  or  Gos- 
pel he  held  for  her  benefit.  For  her  sake  he  defended  it 
against  all  invaders.  He  bore  the  reproach  to  which  it  was 
subject;  he  watched  over  the  whole  body;  for,  "  the  care  of 
all  the  churches  "  came  on  him ;  and,  at  the  same  time,  he 
cared  for  the  weakest  and  obscurest  of  the  flock.  To  keep 
the  faith,  or  the  truth,  and  to  administer  it  in  due  season  to 
every  man  and  every  church,  was  his  commission ;  and  well 
18* 


210  SERMONS. 

might  he  say,    ''  I  have  kept  the  faith."     And  from  this 
review  of  his  life  he  looks  forward  to 

II.     A    FUTURE    FILLED    WITH    BLESSEDNESS. 

He  had  honored  his  Redeemer,  and  he  knew  that  Christ 
would  honor  him.  He  looked  for  "a  crown."  It  has  been 
a  common  thing  in  the  world's  history  to  contend  for  a  crown. 
The  Christian  hero  here  stands  on  the  level  of  the  earthly 
hero.  But,  when  we  come  to  compare  the  nature  of  these 
respective  crowns,  the  character  of  their  conflicts,  and  the 
umpires  to  whom  the  warriors  look,  the  Christian  rises  to  an 
elevation  infinitely  above  the  earthly  hero.  The  former 
fights  the  good  fight  of  faith  ;  pure  in  its  motive,  pure  in  all 
its  processes,  blessed  in  all  its  results.  He  looks  for  a  crown 
of  righteousness,  or  the  appropriate  reward  of  righteous 
actions  springing  from  righteous  principles ;  and  he  looks, 
not  to  a  frantic  mob,  or  an  erring  mortal,  but  to  the  Lord,  the 
Judge,  the  Righteous.  There  is  nothing  selfish  in  the  war, 
the  victory,  nor  the  coronation.  The  conquered  are  all  to  be 
crowned  with  their  Conqueror  ;  and  "  all  them  also  that  love 
his  appearing."  That  day,  that  glorious  day,  when  every 
faithful  warrior,  racer,  and  steward,  will  be  honored  and 
rewarded,  Paul  had  then  full  in  view. 


To  every  wait  there  must  be  a  specific  rcork  assigned. 
—  Nothing  can  be  made  in  vain  by  a  wise  Creator.  Paul's 
work  may  be  more  vast  and  magnificent  than  yours  or  mine, 
but  more  real  or  distinct  it  cannot  be.  Like  Paul,  each  of 
us  has  a  battle  to  fight,  a  race  to  run,-  a  trust  to  discharge. 


Paul's  review  of  his  life.  211 

And  yet  there  is  a  variety  in  the  details  as  great  as  the  other 
personal  varieties  which  distinguish  us.  All  have  an  enemy 
to  contend  "with.  If  we  do  not  believe  in  his  existence,  of 
course  he  gains,  by  that  alone,  an  immense  advantage.  Paul 
was  ignorant  neither  of  him  ''nor  his  devices."  He  has 
intrenchments  in  our  hearts,  and  allies  in  our  avocations, 
our  friends,  our  amusements.  We  need  courage,  as  Paul 
did,  or  we  never  shall  overcome.  We  need  to  put  on  the 
whole  armor  of  God,  that  we  may  withstand  his  assaults : 
and  faith,  that  we  may  gain  the  victory.  In  some  there  wnll 
be  sore  conflicts  with  doubts ;  some,  with  passions ;  some, 
with  sluggishness;  some,  with  social  influences;  some,  with 
business-snares ;  some,  with  pride ;  and  some,  with  the  love 
of  money,  enterprise,  or  poAver. 

Every  one  must  resist  Satan.  There  is  also  a  race  set 
before  each  of  us.  The  goal  to  which  we  are  to  run  is  an 
end  worthy  of  man's  highest  affections,  utmost  energy,  and 
of  heaven's  utmost  aid.  Our  catechism  exj^resses  it  in  one 
good  form :  "  The  chief  end  of  man  is  to  glorify  God,  and  to 
enjoy  him  forever."  Having  chosen  these  ends  to  pursue, 
then  we  need  energy  and  perseverance,  like  Paul's,  in  the 
pursuit  of  them. 

Each  of  us  has  a  trust  committed  to  him.  No  other 
treasure  can  be  so  precious,  no  responsibility  can  be  greater. 
Here  each  one  is  to  be  faithful. 

But  it  is  only  in  these  general  features  that  our  duties  and 
responsibilities  can  agree.  There  is  an  infinite  variety  in 
the  detail.     Nothing  can  be  more   personal   and  peculiar 


212  SERMONS. 

than  duty.  And  if  we  look  through  the  biographies  of  the 
Bible,  we  shall  be  struck  with  the  diversity  of  forms  which 
duty  takes.  Adam  had  just  one  simple  negative  prescription, 
not  to  eat  that  fruit.  Abel  had  to  serve  God  unto  martyr- 
dom. Noah  was  placed  where  social  influences  were  to  be 
resisted.  Enoch's  trust  was  to  warn  a  wicked  world.  Abra- 
ham's was  to  magnify  faith  under  the  severest  tests.  Job's 
was  to  illustrate  patience.  Jacob  was  to  try  the  efficacy  of 
prayer.  Moses  had  a  vast  and  complicate  work  to  perform, 
of  governing  the  church.  And  so  it  is  through  the  Old  and 
New  Testaments.  No  two  are  placed  in  the  same  circum- 
stances. And  they  accomplished  their  work  best  who  best 
understood  what  they  had  to  do,  and  who  gave  themselves 
fully  to  it. 

What  must  any  one,  then,  think  of  himself,  who  has  no 
warfare  with  spiritual  foes,  no  heavenly  race  to  run,  no  trust 
from  Christ?  Surely  he  makes  his  life  a  blank,  he  neglects 
momentous  trusts,  and  incurs  terrible  guilt. 

There  is  a  croivn  of  righteousness  for  the  fuithful 
soldier^  racer ^  and  stercard.  —  God  has  bound  the  present 
and  the  future  together,  and  in  this  form.  The  soul  out  of 
Christ  remains  forever  under  the  bondage  of  sin.  The  soul 
in  Christ  becomes  in  the  end  perfect.  Degrees  of  fidelity  to 
Christ  determine  the  degree  of  future  blessedness.  Ancient 
nations  bestowed  various  sorts  of  garlands,  diadems,  and 
crowns,  on  their  victorious  generals.  Under  this  imagery 
Paul  describes  the  blessedness  he  was  anticipating.  He  had 
called  his  warfare  a  good  fight.     So  he  calls  his  coronation  a 


PAUL'S  REVIEW    OF   HIS   LIFE.  213 

righteous  one.  His  labors  and  sacrifices  were  in  the  cause 
of  righteousness ;  and  they  would  be  acknowledged  and  re- 
warded by  a  righteous  judge,  so  that  none  could  challenge 
his  right  to  receive  them.  It  will  not  be  demanded  by  justice 
that  our  poor  sacrifices  receive  any  reward.  But  it  will  be 
in  strict  accordance  with  justice  that  they  be  rewarded  for 
Christ's  sake.  He  that  has  fought  God's  enemies  with 
courage  shall  be  honored  as  a  conqueror.  He  that  has  run 
God's  appointed  race  shall  receive  the  prize.  The  faithful 
steward,  whose  pound  hath  gained  ten.  shall  be  made  ruler 
over  ten  cities.  Whatever  we  have  sacrificed  or  suffered  for 
the  Lord,  he  will  recognize  and  recompense.  Paul  "became 
a  fool "  by  opposing  the  wisdom  of  the  world ;  his  wisdom  in 
this  will  there  be  acknowledged.  He  humbled  himself  here ; 
he  shall  be  exalted  there.  He  gave  up  riches  here  ;  he  shall 
have  the  wealth  of  heaven.  And  this  crown,  he  says,  will 
be  shared  by  all  who  love  the  Lord's  appearing.  Ambition, 
envy,  and  selfishness,  are  to  be  slain  by  the  cross  of  Christ. 
Each  one  will  be  conscious  of  the  peculiar  blessings  he 
receives  :  but  it  will  excite  neither  pride  in  him  nor  envy  in 
others.  Every  soul  will  be  full  of  love  to  Christ,  and  that 
will  make  its  happiness  complete. 

Paul  teaches  us  hoio  to  die.  —  He  began  to  prepare  for 
death  by  making  right  preparations  for  life.  He  renounced 
his  natural  relations  to  law,  that  he  might  be  in  Christ.  He 
renounced  his  own  will,  and  all  selfish  ends.  He  ascertained 
the  work  his  Lord  assigned  him,  then  performed  it  in  hum- 
ble dependence  and  comi^lete  self-sacrificing.     Some  do  not 


214  SERMONS. 

even  know  their  IMaster's  will,  mucli  less  perform  it.  Then 
he  took  a  calm  review  of  his  life.  Nothing  can  be  more 
noble  than  his  position  between  a  life  of  devotedness  to  his 
Saviour  and  an  eternity  of  blessedness.  "I  have  fought," 
he  says,  recalling  his  conflicts,  ' '  I  have  finished  my  course, 
I  have  kept  the  fiiith."  "  I  am  ready  to  be  offered."  What 
a  delightful  sight,  to  behold  a  dying  man  manifest  such  an 
interest  in  his  friends,  and  in  the  cause  of  Christ;  such  ele- 
vated composure  and  self-forgetfulness ;  such  tender  care  of 
Timothy;  such  solicitude  for  the  Gospel!  That  is  a  noble 
death.  And  when  he  has  finished  with  earth,  how  tri- 
umphant are  his  anticipations  !  "  The  time  of  my  departure 
is  at  hand."  Like  the  strong,  full-freighted  ship  in  her 
harbor,  going  to  distant  lands,  he  seems  to  strain  bis  cable, 
and  longs  to  give  his  sails  to  the  wind.  "  A  crown  of  right- 
eousness "  is  laid  up  for  me,  —  I  shall  be  among  the  crowned ' 
What  royal  diadem  is  comparable  to  this? 


XIII. 

GLORY  IN  RESERVE. 


"STflfn  tfiat  fie  inise  sfjall  sfjine  as  ti)e  firisfttncss  of  t^e  firnta  = 
mnit;  anlr  tfits  t^at  turn  mans  to  rtflfjtf ousntss,  as  tfie  stars, 
for  cbtt  ani  tber."— Dan.  12  :  3. 

The  sky  is  a  magnificent  object.  Its  deep  blue  vault  is 
at  once  infinite  and  finite ;  a  dome  of  awful  height ;  and  yet 
axjtually  an  illimitable  space,  to  give  the  soul's  wings  room 
for  a  boundless  flight.  Then  the  morning,  the  mid-day,  and 
the  evening,  all  have  their  beauties ;  the  day  and  the  night, 
the  summer,  autumn,  winter,  and  spring,  ever  varying  the 
scene.  The  brightness  of  the  firmament  glowing  with  the 
mid-day  sun  gives  way  to  the  contrasted  grandeurs  of  a  mid- 
night sky,  all  gorgeous  with  its  shining  orbs. 

This  magnificent  feature  of  creation  has  furnished  the 
prophet  of  the  Lord  an  illustration  of  the  glory  which  awaits 
a  certain  part  of  the  human  race.  A  portion  of  this  prophecy 
is  supposed  to  embrace  the  period  of  persecution  under  the 
dynasty  of  the  Maccabees,  in  which  the  prophet  says,  in  the 
eleventh  chapter,  that  "they  that  understand  among  the 
people  shall  instruct  many;  yet  they  shall  fall  by  the  sword 
and  by  flame,  by  captivity  and  by  spoil."      He   seems  to 


216  SERMOXS. 

come  back  to  their  case  in  the  passage  now  under  our  consid- 
eration ;  and  to  present  to  those  who  should  persevere,  under 
such  discouragements,  in  teaching  men  the  ways  of  piety,  the 
most  animating  prospects.  What  if  they  should  go  to  the 
stake  and  the  scaffold,  —  another  life  is  beyond,  not  to  termi- 
nate. And  there  "  they  that  be  wise,  or  godly,  shall  shine 
as  the  brightness  of  the  firmament ;  and  they  that  turn  many 
to  righteousness,  as  the  stars." 

The  text  has  a  climactic  description  of  heaven ;  first  show- 
ing that 

I.  Piety  alone  is  honored  in  heaven.  —  For  men  are 
removed  to  that  blessed  land,  only  as  a  reward  of  piety ;  and 
in  heaven  only  piety  will  be  honored. 

1.  Being  in  heaven  is  itself  the  reward  of  inety^  as  it 
is  an  expression  of  God's  approbation.  —  To  be  there,  is  proof 
of  being  fit  to  be  there.  It  shows  that  God  thus  judges  con- 
cerning the  person ;  that  his  angels  judge  so  likcAvise.  And, 
besides  expressing  fitness,  it  will  be  an  honor  conferred,  a 
reward  of  service. 

John  saw  the  dwellers  in  heaven  as  conquerors,  wearing  the 
badges  of  victory.  They  were  the  heroes  of  a  hundred 
battles.  Sometimes  in  solitary  conflict  with  their  fierce  adver- 
sary, sometimes  in  the  thick  array  of  God's  holy  army,  they 
had  fought  for  Christ  and  truth.  To  be  there,  is  to  receive 
the  reward  of  faith,  integrity,  courage,  and  patience.  It  will 
be  glory,  immense  glory,  only  to  reach  heaven ;  Avh  ether  from 
the  obscurest  walks  of  life,  or  from  the  loftiest  stations  of  the 
church  militant.     Merely  to  have  that  verdict  of  heaven  for- 


GLORY   IN   RESERVE.  217 

ever  sealed,  irrevocable,  unquestioned,  unchallenged,  "This 
person  is  fit  for  heaven,"  is  as  much  above  all  the  glories  of 
earth,  as  the  approbation  of  God  is  above  that  of  fallible  man  ; 
and  that  quality  in  man  -which  is  thus  rewarded  is,  in  dis- 
tinction from  everything  else,  piety.  But  it  is  more  than  this  : 
2.  The  beauty  of  holiness  will  be  there  seen  to  consti- 
tute man^s  true  glory.  —  We  can  judge  of  man  now  but 
partially.  He  is  fallen.  His  beauty  is  defaced ;  his  glory 
is  dimmed.  Everything  else  God  has  made,  is  perfect  in  its 
kind  and  place  ;  and  when  man  shall  recover  his  lost  beauty, 
there  will  be  great  splendor.  We  catch  glimpses  of  it  in  the 
smile  of  an  infant ;  the  brightness  of  his  reverential  gaze 
when  wonder  and  love  sometimes  fill  his  little  heart.  But 
in  infant  or  man  all  good  is  in  fragments.  "  When  we  see  him 
(Christ),  we  shall  be  like  him."  There  will  be  perfection  ; 
the  perfectly  restored  image  of  God.  Each  one  will  have  the 
family-likeness,  yet  varied  as  the  leaves  of  the  forest.  Each 
one  will  look  like  Jesus.  His  beauty  will  be  the  beauty 
of  holiness ;  which  is  love  in  place  of  selfishness.  Here 
our  beauty  is  either  lost  entirely  in  absolute  selfishness ; 
recovered  in  mere  imitation  of  a  refinement  and  courtesy 
that  substitute  the  grimace  of  benevolence  for  its  life;  or, 
at  best,  but  partially  recovered.  There  love  will  be  perfect. 
Whomsoever  you  meet  there,  you  know  there  is  not  a  con- 
tracted, selfish  feeling  in  his  heart.  He  loves  the  blessed 
God  with  a  true,  fervent,  supreme  love.  He  loves  his  fel- 
lows as  himself  He  lives  for  the  general  good,  and  counts 
the  happiness  of  each  his  own.  He  is  perfectly  refined, 
19 


218  SERMONS. 

because  he  is  perfectly  considerate  of  the  rights  and  feelings 
of  each.  It  is  the  glory,  too,  of  perfect  obedience  and  loy- 
alty. How  beautiful  a  sight  is  a  family  in  which  every 
member  cheerfully  does  the  will  of  the  head  of  that  little 
empire  !  In  heaven,  each  is  loyal ;  no  self-will  mars  its 
order.  Every  heart  beats  with  a  loyal  zeal  for  the  King's 
honor.  Every  one  has  each  of  his  affections  and  faculties 
brought  into  perfect  subjection  to  the  supreme  authority  and 
will.  That  is  a  blissful  state,  and  each  member  of  that  state 
is  blessed.  It  is  not  the  glory  of  successful  ambition ;  it  is 
marred  by  no  fretting  discontent,  or  self-obtruding  forward- 
ness. No  guest  at  that  feast  has  taken  the  highest  seat,  of 
his  own  will;  but  the  Master  has  placed  each  higher  than  he 
thought  he  deserved,  and  said,  "  Friend,  come  up  hither ! "  It 
is  a  glorious  world,  where  there  are  no  self-inflated  dignities, 
no  vain  and  shallow  pretenders  ;  where  glory  is  recognized  as 
consisting  not  in  possessing  talents,  but  in  using  them  aright. 
If  there  are  Csesars  there,  they  are  such  as  have  conquered 
themselves,  and  then  conquered  evil  in  the  world.  If  there 
are  Byrons,  they  have  tuned  their  lyres  for  Jesus  and  holi- 
ness. Holiness  makes  each  one  blessed  there.  Holiness  is 
the  foundation  and  top-stone  of  that  temple ;  the  light,  the 
atmosphere,  the  glory,  of  that  world.  "They  that  be  wise 
shall  shine  as  the  brightness  of  the  firmament." 

But  who  are  the  wise,  that  are  to  shine  as  the  bright  firm- 
ament, with  its  ever- varying  splendors  ?  That  brings  to  our 
view  another  feature  of  heaven.  They  are  the  saints  of  God, 
gathered  from  this  world.     Therefore  we  are  taught  that 


GLORY  IN  RESERVE.  219 

II.  The  piety  most  honored  in  heaven  will  come 

FROM   this   earth. 

This  is  very  wonderful.  So  is  the  whole  system  of  re- 
demption. Angels  are  astonished  at  it.  Its  rewards  are 
wonderful.  Men  who  have  sinned  will  be  rewarded  above 
angels  who  have  never  sinned.  Sin  is  the  great  evil,  and 
Grace  is  the  great  good.  And  it  is  God's  purpose  that  where 
sin  hath  abounded,  Grace  shall  superabound. 

1.  Their  glory  is  a  reioard  indirectly  to  them,  directly 
to  Christ.  —  His  sufferings  and  mediation  all  have  their 
recompense  in  man's  salvation.  Nothing  is  done  directly 
on  their  own  account ;  they  are  "  saved  by  grace  through 
faith,"  "for  Christ's  sake;"  therefore  the  glory  conferred  on 
them  will  have  peculiar  features,  expressive  of  the  Father's 
estimate  of  Christ's  sacrifice.  And  this  will  make  it  seem 
right  in  the  view  of  angels  ;  that  they  should  be  thus  pecu- 
liarly honored,  not  for  their  own  sake,  but  for  Christ's. 

Their  piety  will  have  in  itself  no  peculiar  excellence  above 
that  of  angels ;  but  it  will  have  peculiar  relations  to  the 
person  and  work  of  Christ.  United  to  the  Lord  God  by  the 
peculiar  tie  of  a  common  nature,  regenerated  men  have  had 
illustrated  in  their  redemption  and  experience  attributes  of 
the  Deity  not  brought  into  exercise  by  his  treatment  of  the 
holy  angels.  This  is  a  display  of  sovereign  grace  in  God,  to 
which  holy  angels  will  bow  alike  with  reverence  and  satisfac- 
tion. Redeemed  men  will  reflect,  as  planets,  a  peculiar 
glory  of  God,  yet  a  glory  really  their  own  ;  they  will  shine 
as  the  firmament. 


220  SERMONS. 

2.  They  7viU  appear  in  a  peculiar  lustre^  as  conquerors. 
—  The  angels  are  represented  as  fighting.  But  they  never 
fought  an  enemy  within  their  own  being.  They  never  spent 
their  lives  in  conflict.  They  never  so  taxed  the  resources  of 
grace  as  we  have.  There  will  be,  on  the  part  of  the  angels, 
a  peculiar  admiration  for  the  heroes  from  this  war ;  a  peculiar 
sympathy.  "  These  are  they  that  have  come  out  of  great 
tribulation,"  will  be  said  to  every  wondering  angel,  Avho 
inquires  after  their  history.  Look  at  a  recovered  pagan  ;  what 
a  history  is  his  !  Look  at  Saul  of  Tarsus,  and  John  Bunyan ; 
what  histories  are  theirs  !  They  will  shine  as  the  firmament. 
But  the  description  goes  still  further. 

IIL  Useful  piety  from  earth  will  be  the  bright- 
est CREATED  OBJECT  IN  HEAVEN.  — "  They  that  tum 
many  to  righteousness  "  are  to  shine  "as  the  stars,  for  ever 
and  ever." 

1.  Usefulness  is  the  highest  form  of  human  piety.  —  I 
do  not  mean  by  this  to  deny  that  persons  of  inferior  reli- 
gious cultivation,  and  with  great  imperfections,  have  not  been 
active,  and  even  useful ;  and  so  will,  because  of  their  peculiar 
defect,  rank  lower  in  heaven  than  some  who  directly  affected 
fewer  persons.  There  are  two  extremes  in  sincere  believers. 
There  may  be  an  excessive  cultivation  of  personal  piety ; 
excessive,  by  being  too  exclusive  of  regard  to,  or  labor  for 
others.  And  there  may  be  too  much  outward  activity ;  that 
is,  disproportioned  to  personal  cultivation.  But,  with  these 
qualifications,  I  return  to  state  that  the  height  of  all  culti- 
vation is  to  grow  into  useful  piety.     Love  is  the  crowning 


GLORY   IN   RESERVE.  221 

grace.  And  it  has  two  phases,  complacency  and  beneficence. 
Take,  then,  two  believers  equal  in  all  other  respects :  one 
cultivating  love  as  benevolence  and  beneficence ;  the  other 
cultivating  it  mainly  as  a  dormant  principle,  terminating  in 
good  wishes.  They  would  appear  in  heaven  as  two  lawyers 
would  make  their  appearance  in  court :  one  full  of  learning, 
but  with  no  knowledge  of  practice  :  the  other  equally  learned 
with  him,  but  also  skilled  by  practice.  Love  has  its  perfec- 
tion in  exercise.  It  says  not  "  Be  ye  warmed ;  "  but  it  warms ; 
and  by  warming  it  grows  warm.  Self-denial  will  be  honored 
in  heaven.  The  exercise  of  sentimental  love  and  theoretical 
love  does  not  disturb  our  selfishness.  They  flatter  our  self- 
conceit,  without  taxing  our  self-love.  But,  where  one  has 
denied  himself  in  order  to  benefit  others,  it  will  be  mentioned 
most  honorably  in  heaven.  In  fact,  that  will  be  the  most  hon- 
ored there.  It  will  not  be  a  beautiful  piety,  that  we  nursed 
apart  from  the  wind  and  storms,  from  the  conflicts  and  strug- 
gles, the  miseries  and  sins,  of  our  poor  world,  and  from  our 
poor  fellow-creatures.  We  may  think  a  great  deal  of  it 
here,  perhaps  ;  and  we  may  be  afraid  of  nothing  so  much  as 
to  impair  its  dignity  by  too  rude  a  contact  with  this  rough 
world.  But  if  you  would  know  how  things  will  seem  here- 
after, take  these  tests.  '\Yhat  are  our  feelings  in  reading 
history  ?  What  type  of  character  stands  out  to  us  most 
glorious  ?  And  what  part  of  the  lives  of  good  men  affects  us 
most  ?  Just  where  they  forgot  themselves,  and  cared  for  their 
country,  their  God,  and  their  kind. 

In  Paul,  what  was  nobler  than  this  :  "  We  seek  not  yours, 
19* 


222  SEKMONS. 

but  you.  I  will  gladly  be  spent  for  you  ;  though  the  more 
abundantly  I  love  you,  the  less  I  be  loved."  In  profane  his- 
tory, what  stands  out  in  nobler  light  than  the  self-sacrificings 
exhibited  by  friendship  and  by  patriotism  ?  So,  no  passages 
of  any  life,  read  in  heaven,  will  appear  more  brilliant  than 
those  in  which  self  was  most  renounced  for  the  good  of  others. 

This,  too,  is  most  Christ-like.  As  love  places  him,  as  man, 
by  right,  at  the  head  of  the  moral  empire,  or  kingdom  of 
God,  so  men  will  rank  under  him,  by  the  same  principle. 
And,  moreover,  practical  love  develops  the  highest  kind  of 
wisdom,  the  highest  form  of  strength ;  strength  of  intelli- 
gence, of  will,  of  mere  affection,  not  being  comparable  to 
that  strength  which  prevails  with  God,  to  give  salvation  to 
others ;  and  with  man,  to  persuade  him  to  obey  God.  All 
other  wisdom,  now  so  renowned,  will,  in  heaven's  meridian, 
holy  light,  shrink  into  insignificance. 

Many  think  that  humility  never  can  be  consistent  with 
being  praised  for  our  good  qualities.  But  it  is  certain  that 
their  view  is  at  least  incomplete.  Paul  praised.  Moses 
praised  even  himself  The  Lord  will  praise  the  saints  in  the 
judgment.  In  heaven,  everything  will  be  estimated  aright. 
We  will  know  exactly  what  others  think  of  us ;  and  each  will 
"  think  soberly  "  himself,  "  according  as  God  hath  dealt  to 
every  man  the  measure  of  faith." 

2.  Their  oioii  blessedness,  loo,  will  be  the  greatest.  — 
The  useful  will  shine  in  the  brightness  of  a  peculiar  happi- 
ness. Theirs  will  be  the  joy  of  seeing  those  saved  for  whom 
they  cared.     Fathers  and  mothers  can  know  this  joy  only  by 


GLORY  IN   RESERVE.  223 

knowing  this  solicitude.  Pastors  will  possess  it;  mission- 
aries and  teachers,  too.  It  is  the  morning  that  dawns  after 
a  dark  and  dreary  night  in  a  wilderness.  It  is  the  glorious 
sunshine  that  follows  a  storm ;  the  harvest  after  a  seed- 
time of  sorrow.  Theirs  is  the  joy  of  seeing  the  fruit  of 
their  labors.  Washington  must  have  been  the  happiest  man 
on  earth,  so  far  as  temporal  good  can  satisfy,  when  he 
resigned  his  commission,  and  felt  that  he  had  saved  his  coun- 
try. No  joy  of  conquest,  no  satisfaction  of  ambition  or 
avarice,  was  ever  to  compare  with  the  depth  and  purity  of  his 
joy,  the  glory  that  encircled  his  brow. 

What  treasures  of  joy  is  every  weeping  laborer  now  lay- 
ing up  in  heaven !  Theirs  is  the  joy  of  receiving  the  love 
and  gratitude  of  those  whom  they  have  saved.  The  expres- 
sions of  the  Bible  are  very  bold.  The  power  of  converting 
the  soul  is  alone  in  God ;  but  it  speaks  of  men  converting 
others.  In  the  text,  in  Hebrew,  it  is  not  "  turning  many  to 
righteousness,"  but  "making  many  righteous." 

We  can  conceive  of  no  blessedness  greater  than  that  of  a 
society  made  up  as  heaven  is.  All  have  been  alike  redeemed 
by  Christ.  There  he  is  at  the  head  of  the  state ;  not  by 
mere  right,  or  power ;  not  only  as  king  or  father,  but  as 
Saviour  to  all.  Then  all  are  bound  together  by  this  tie.  One 
can  say  to  another,  "  You  brought  me  here." 

Perhaps  natural  relationships  will  enhance  the  blessedness 
of  heaven  to  those  who  are  faithful  in  them.  A  patriarch, 
with  his  children  and  his  children's  children  there,  will  be  a 
glorious  sight. 


224  SERMONS. 

Let  us,  then,  cease  complaining  that  so  little  is  revealed  to 
us  about  heaven.  We  know  enough  of  heaven  to  reach  it. 
That  is  more  than  Columbus  knew  of  the  highway  to  this 
continent.  We  know  enough  of  heaven  to  animate  us  to 
most  earnest  desires.  He  probably  knew  altogether  less 
about  this  continent.  And  yet  what  he  knew  kept  him 
earnest  in  the  midst  of  discouragements,  calm  under  disap- 
pointments, cheerfully  sacrificing  any  immediate  comfort,  or 
any  amount  of  wealth,  that  he  might  reach  this  far-off, 
unknown  world. 

The  iiwrld's  wisdom,  at  best,  is  short-sighted.  —  Take 
the  most  sound  and  judicious  man  of  the  Avorld.  He  counsels 
others,  and  he  acts  on  it,  to  regard  piety  as  secondary.  He 
virtually  says  :  "  Neglect  to  promote  the  highest  good  of  other 
men ;  omit  opportunities  of  obtaining  true  grandeur  and  glory 
for  yourself;  count  converting  souls  to  Christ  folly;  nay, 
despise  it."  And  yet  he  is  counted  very  wise  !  He  comes 
to  his  death-bed,  cut  off  from  both  worlds.  He  has  planted 
no  seed  that  will  grow  in  heaven.  He  is  losing  the  present 
world ;  and  he  has  blessed  no  soul,  to  bless  him  in  heaven. 
The  business  of  life  is,  to  prepare  for  heaven,  and  to  take 
others  there. 

The  study  of  the  modes  of  usefidness  is  one  of  the 
most  important  branches  of  human  pursuit.  —  It  is  a 
study ;  and  the  most  useful  men  have  studied  it  earnestly. 
Nor  is  there  any  patent,  stereotyped  Avay  of  doing  good. 
Each  must  learn  for  himself  how  to  be  useful  in  his  own 
sphere.     Each  must  be  an  original.     Do  any  ask  what  there 


GLORY   IN   RESERVE.  225 

is  to  be  learned  ?  We  may  reply,  you  must  learn  how  to 
become  holy ;  and  how  to  draw  others  to  holiness  by  ex- 
ample ;  you  must  learn  how  to  teach,  to  persuade  by  books, 
by  letters,  by  conversation ;  you  must  learn  how  to  pray, 
and  to  combine  with  others.  It  is  much  for  any  one  to  learn 
just  what  he  is  fitted  to  do. 

Believers  can  afford  to  wait,  to  toil,  and  to  suffer.  — 
The  glory  that  awaits  them  is  an  infinite  compensation. 
Their  ''  light  afflictions,  which  are  but  for  a  moment,  shall 
work  out  for  them  a  far  more  exceeding  and  eternal  weight 
of  glory." 


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